Online Q&A site Ask.com acquired Ask.fm, a mobile-focused Q&A social network, said a Thursday news release (http://on.mktw.net/Vq3Cgi). “It’s a natural entry into a market segment and platform where Ask.com has been looking to expand, “said Ask.com CEO Doug Leeds. Ask.fm’s mobile app has been downloaded 40 million times, Ask.com said.

A scratch- and crack-resistant sapphire-glass screen is the feature that’s most wanted in the iPhone 6, said a survey of 1,000 smartphone owners done by uSell.com, which bills itself as the leading online marketplace for used iPhones. Of the respondents, nearly half (45.5 percent) see sapphire glass as their most desired iPhone 6 feature, followed by an infrared camera that can see in the dark (19.2 percent) and new tools for monitoring health and fitness (10.7 percent), it said. Only 9.5 percent want 3D functionality in the iPhone 6, and only 7.7 percent want smart home tools to control their home appliances, it said. The survey also asked respondents which incremental iPhone improvement they would want most in an iPhone 6. Longer battery life topped the list (37 percent), followed by a bigger screen (19.2 percent), it said: “Even though a bigger screen is a much talked about iPhone improvement, nearly twice as many people consider improved battery life to be more important."

If Sprint and T-Mobile get the FCC to change spectrum aggregation rules for the TV incentive auction “it could drive up prices for what little spectrum is still available in the secondary market,” BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk said Thursday in a research note. Both major carriers this week filed petitions for reconsideration seeking changes to the May 15 spectrum holdings order (CD Aug 13 p1). If the two are successful Dish Network could be the winner, with its extensive spectrum holdings, Piecyk wrote. “If not successful, Sprint and T-Mobile will be further disadvantaged to cost-effectively build network coverage, a clear positive for their dominant competitors, AT&T and Verizon."

APCO asked the FCC to clarify as quickly as possible whether the agency will change its mandate that public safety licensees using 700 MHz narrowband spectrum convert their radio systems to 6.25 kHz operation by Dec. 31, 2016. The FCC is reportedly considering an order addressing this requirement, the group said Thursday in a letter filed in docket 13-87 (http://bit.ly/1sYUJaK). Speed is critical since related restrictions on the manufacturing, marketing and importation of equipment kick in at year’s end, the group said. “Nearly all” comments that have been filed “strongly supported the need to eliminate, or at least extend, those deadlines,” APCO said. “The immediate problem is that, absent a rapid Commission decision, many public safety agencies will be forced to begin the extraordinarily expensive and time-consuming process of replacing their existing equipment in an attempt to meet the current deadline.” Many of the radios that would have to be changed “still have many years of useful life before reaching normal equipment replacement cycles,” APCO said.

Guess Watches will team with smart watch developer Martian Watches to develop “interactive, voice-command wrist accessories,” the companies said Wednesday. The companies envision marketing “smart wearables” combining fashion and technology that will be Guess-branded and bearing the label “powered by Martian,” they said. They expect to announce specific products by early 2015, they said. A Martian Watches engineering executive predicted in the spring that “killer apps” ultimately will determine whether smart watches succeed or fail, but conceded then that “there’s no such candidate right now” (CD March 7 p15).

T-Mobile sought reconsideration of the FCC’s May 15 spectrum holdings order. The request said it’s seeking to keep Verizon and AT&T from dominating the TV incentive auction (CD Aug 13 p1), T-Mobile Vice President Kathleen Ham said in a Tuesday blog post (http://t-mo.co/1q8R4Ci). “Without a reasonable limit on the two dominant carriers’ market power, the two dominant carriers would likely push competitors out of the auction and consumers would face an uncertain future of less innovative, more costly, and lower quality wireless broadband services,” Ham wrote.

The Minority Media and Telecommunications Council told Commissioner Mike O'Rielly and other FCC officials in a series of meetings at the agency that flexibility is key as the agency revises its designated entity rules in time for the TV incentive auction. There are many different types of DEs, each with unique financial arrangements, strategies and objectives, MMTC officials said, according to an ex parte filing in docket 05-211 posted by the agency Wednesday. “To have an effective DE program, the rules must be written to maximize flexibility -- the ability for DEs to adapt to market conditions and new technology -- and be designed to increase access to capital,” MMTC said (http://bit.ly/VkqFcr). “For example, a DE might want to work with an established retail outlet to help them establish a telecommunications arm.”

Proposed technical specifications by oneM2M were released (http://bit.ly/1uLrisb). The oneM2M group is a global partnership to develop standards for machine-to-machine communications and the Internet of Things. “This Candidate Release of Technical Specifications is the first step towards internationally recognized M2M standards, and will help further oneM2M’s goal of creating an M2M Service Layer that will enable scalable global deployment of M2M IoT implementation while allowing interoperability within existing standards,” the Telecommunications Industry Association said in a news release Tuesday.

LTE-Advanced network deployments have been increasing this year, ABI Research said Tuesday in a report, saying about 60 LTE-Advanced deployments, commitments or trials were underway during Q1. Twenty-two commitments were in Western Europe, 16 were in the Asia-Pacific region and five in North America, ABI said. Carriers are finding LTE-Advanced attractive because it includes the carrier aggregation (CA) feature, which allows carriers to “utilize all spectrum resources to increase data rates,” said ABI research analyst Marina Lu in a news release. “In France, Bouygues Telecom first utilized CA to launch LTE-Advanced in six cities in mid-June, 2014, while Orange France and SFR also announced they will commercially deploy LTE-Advanced.” Voice over LTE is also increasing its market traction this year, ABI said. The ABI report also said about 75 percent of the upcoming 4G spectrum auctions will be in Africa, the Asia-Pacific region or Latin America (http://bit.ly/1vE50N7).

Spectrum Networks Group (SNG) fired back at critics of its proposed plan to use the 896-901/935-940 MHz band to offer machine-to-machine communications to businesses through its subsidiary M2M Spectrum Networks. The Enterprise Wireless Alliance (EWA), Motorola Solutions and the Utilities Telecom Council all raised concerns in the initial comment round. “The record provides clear evidence that M2M is able and ready to deploy its network with dispatch,” SNG said (http://bit.ly/1rmCZDk). “M2M’s plans would serve the public interest; SNG should either be considered eligible to hold the requested 900 MHz I/B licenses or be granted a waiver of any applicable eligibility requirements; and the conditions to which SNG and M2M are prepared to submit will dispel any concern that is even remotely plausible.” The filing was posted Tuesday in docket 14-100. EWA said the company has never answered its questions nor those raised by other commenters (http://bit.ly/1rmE79P). “A fundamental deficiency in the Waiver is the failure to even allege, much less substantiate, that the system SNG says it intends to deploy cannot be accommodated on spectrum that would not require a waiver of the FCC rules,” EWA said. The band is dedicated to mobile communications, but comments filed by potential M2M customers indicate the primary focus of the network “would be for fixed, not mobile, services,” EWA said.