Gigabit Squared bought conduit and other assets from Zayo Group, it said Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1edZjHL), calling it its “first major investment” in a fiber-to-the-premises network planned for parts of Seattle. The conduit cost millions and “will help Gigabit Squared more effectively utilize excess fiber capacity the company will lease from the City of Seattle,” it added. Zayo will help support Gigabit Squared with “conduit, colocation space and other infrastructure services,” Gigabit Squared said. The public-private partnership in Seattle includes the University of Washington, Gigabit Squared and the city government. Gigabit Squared disclosed its planned residential pricing in June and plans to launch service next year.

Dish is incorporating GetGlue into its second-screen app Dish explorer for iPad, said Dish and GetGlue in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1csu0e7). GetGlue’s media feed tracks real-time activity for about 35,000 shows and 50,000 movies and current sporting events, and media feed content includes pictures, comments, videos, recaps and tweets, said the companies. GetGlue’s integration with Dish will allow users to earn rewards from various entertainment partners when they check in to shows, said the companies. “GetGlue’s inclusion in Dish Explorer fits perfectly with how our customers use the app, to better discover, experience and connect with their favorite programs while also being able to interact with fellow fans of those programs,” said Vivek Khemka, Dish vice president, in a statement.

Low-power FM advocates continued making their case for LPFM seekers to apply to the FCC during an Oct. 15-29 application window (CD July 22 p9). Prometheus Radio Project held a free webinar Wednesday, the group said in an email blast that night that sought donations to the nonprofit. “We are working with hundreds of groups that are preparing to apply."

Mobile traffic offload to Wi-Fi networks is a “somewhat unanticipated success story for Europe and the world,” a study for the European Commission said Thursday. The report (http://bit.ly/17VCpDc) defined offloading as routing wireless data that could be served by macro cellular networks such as LTE, UMTS or WiMAX over alternative access network technologies that use shorter transmission ranges and operate in frequencies that may or may not be exclusively accessible by the network operator. Alternative access to wireless broadband is usually based on “small cells” such as Wi-Fi hotspots or femto- or picocells, it said. Key distinguishing features of offload are that some aspect, either spectrum or backhaul, isn’t under the mobile network operator’s control; and that in the nature of the end-user device, it’s reasonable to assume that the traffic would have been sent over the macro cellular network if it hadn’t been offloaded, it said. Traffic on mobile networks is mushrooming, driven by takeup of smartphones and tablets, the report said. The “visible growth in macro cellular mobile network traffic appears to be only the tip of a much larger iceberg,” it said. The volume of traffic already offloaded, mostly to Wi-Fi in the home, already exceeds that of the mobile network and is expected to grow even faster, it said. Europe’s Wi-Fi market is very mature, with more than 70 percent of households in some countries already having a Wi-Fi access point, it said. Most of the offload is on to private, mainly home, Wi-Fi connections, but this situation is likely to change in the next few years as more is offloaded to public Wi-Fi hotspots, it said. Another major development is community-based public Wi-Fi access, which allows participating subscribers of partner network operators to access other subscribers’ access points, it said. One “strong message” is that Wi-Fi and licensed small cells are complementary to each other, not substitutes, it said. That’s reflected in growing market interest in “hetnets,” or heterogeneous networks, that combine cellular and Wi-Fi access in the same base station hardware, maximizing the use of available spectrum and devices that can be served while lowering costs by using common backhaul and other site infrastructure, it said. The largest socioeconomic benefit of traffic offload is in cost savings for mobile network operators, which can then be passed on to consumers, the report said. It estimated savings in network costs generated in 2012 for the 27 EU countries to be 35 billion euros ($46 billion), with projected savings in 2016 to be 200 billion euros. Relatively little action is needed now at the European level, the report said. Among other things, it recommended that the EU: (1) Seek to make spectrum from 5150-5925 MHz available globally for Wi-Fi. (2) Continue to try to make 2.6 GHz and 3.5 GHz fully available for mobile use. (3) Consult on future licensing options for 3.5 GHz and other potential new licensed mobile frequency bands. (4) Examine administrative barriers to mobile and offload deployment. Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes said she will “make sure the European Commission helps to spread use of Wi-Fi through extra spectrum and lighter regulation."

The Media Bureau announced the filing of an application and deadlines related to the proposed deal between Media General and Young Broadcasting (http://bit.ly/15fQPA8). The deal doesn’t run afoul of cross-ownership rules because Berkshire Hathaway, “which owns newspapers in several Media General television markets, will no longer hold an attributable interest in Media General after consummation of the merger,” said the bureau in a news release Wednesday. The companies have requested renewal for “three existing waivers of local television multiple ownership rules,” the bureau said. Petitions to deny the transaction are due Aug. 8. The bureau also set comment deadlines on Wednesday for the Gannett/Belo and Tribune/Local TV deals (CD Aug 1 p17).

Second-screen users want more than a standard guide to help them find content using Zeebox, said SNL Financial in a report released Wednesday (http://bit.ly/15y4mku). Zeebox works with Digitalsmiths’ Seamless Discovery video discovery platform to provide a wide range of recommendations to users, said the report. Zeebox launched two new features on June 24, Recommended for You and Similar Shows, that deliver personal recommendations based on individual behavior and suggest content similar to shows that have been watched in the past. “You can probably think of a companion TV application or second-screen app as broadly falling into two use cases: one is program discovery and two is program enjoyment, enhancement and participation,” said Zeebox Chief Technology Officer Anthony Rose in the report. “And so you can see we use the TV guide, recommendations, a featuring system and nice program images to create a great discovery experience. But then once a user has clicked on a show, you now want to give them a synchronized, enhanced experience.” Zeebox is starting to focus on more time-shifted content with an update released on July 19 that synchronizes a user’s Twitter stream with time-shifted TV and TV show airings in different time zones, said the report. SNL Financial did not get any compensation from Zeebox for this report, an SNL spokeswoman said.

Britons increasingly engage in media multitasking while they watch TV, said the U.K. Office of Communications in its latest communications market report (http://xrl.us/bpkbse). Just over half of all U.K. adults either “stack” (carry out unrelated media tasks while TV-viewing) or “mesh” (interact or communicate about TV content they're watching), it said. Tablet owners are much more likely than average to multitask with other media, it said. Tablet ownership more than doubled in the past year, reaching 24 percent by Q1 2013, it said. One-third of owners said tablets are their main way of connecting to the Internet, and “bigger screen” activities such as watching TV or movies are becoming tablet-oriented, it said. The share of VOD requests coming from tablets rose from 3 percent to 12 percent from 2011-2012, it said. The research shows that “increasingly families are gathering in the living room to watch TV just as they were in the 1950s -- but now delivered on bigger, wider and more sophisticated sets,” said Ofcom Research Director James Thickett. Unlike the ‘50s family, they're also doing their own thing, he said: tweeting about a program, surfing the Net or viewing different content altogether on a tablet. A few years ago, people would talk about last night’s TV at work or school, he said. “Now, we're having those conversations live while watching TV -- using social media, text and instant messaging.” Other findings included: (1) Average hours of TV watched per day in 2012 increased from three hours and 42 minutes in 2004 to four hours. Seven percent of British households had a smart TV in Q1 2013, up two percentage points from the previous year. Despite the existence of more DVRs over the past five years, the proportion of time-shifted viewing remains low. (2) Over 90 percent of the U.K. adult population tuned in to radio each week in the 12 months to Q1 2013. More people are listening to the radio on their mobile phones. (3) Forty-nine percent of adults accessed the Internet on their mobile phone in Q1, with the biggest rise in mobile Internet takeup among 25-34-year-olds. Mobile advertising now accounts for over half of all digital ad growth. (4) People in Britain spent an average of more than one day per month using the Internet over a mobile network or fixed connection PC in 2012. Over a million new fixed broadband connections were added last year, and takeup of superfast broadband services (at least 30 Mbps) doubled since June 2012.

The FCC Media Bureau announced the filing of applications and comment deadlines for the proposed merger between Gannett and Belo (http://bit.ly/16jV0JY) and the proposed merger between Tribune Media and Local TV. Because market overlaps in the Tribune transaction would violate the commission’s cross-ownership rules in some markets, the parties have proposed transferring TV licenses for stations in Norfolk, Va., Portsmouth, Va., and Scranton, Pa., to Dreamcatcher, in a transaction that would include a shared services agreement with Tribune, said the Media Bureau release. Petitions to deny the transaction are due Aug. 19, opposition comments Sept. 4, and replies to the oppositions Sept. 16, said the bureau. The Gannett/Belo merger application also involves cross-ownership issues in some markets. To resolve them, TV licenses in several markets -- including Phoenix, St. Louis and Tucson -- will be transferred to either Sander Media or Tucker Operating Co., in deals that will include shared services agreements or Joint Sales Agreements, the Media Bureau said. At the request of Free Press and several other organizations that filed petitions to deny in the Gannett/Belo proceeding, the bureau is instituting “permit but disclose” ex parte procedures in the proceeding, the bureau said. Oppositions to the petitions to deny are due Aug. 8, and replies to the oppositions Aug. 20.

The Office of Management and Budget still hasn’t given Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) approval for the FCC’s special access data request, so the Wireline Bureau extended to 2014 the comment deadline on its further NPRM, said the bureau in a public notice Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1aXjnhQ). The further notice sought comment on “possible changes to its rules for granting pricing flexibility” for special access services by ILECs in price-cap areas, the bureau said in a public notice. “Parties were expected to provide comments on rule changes after the Commission collected data for the market analysis.” But that data collection is contingent on PRA approval. “The Bureau expects to begin collecting data towards the end of this year or early next year after OMB approval is received,” its notice said. “Collection of the data is necessary before parties can comment on the questions posed in the Further Notice.” Comments will now be due March 19 in docket 05-25, replies April 30.

FirstNet made two big hires, as one board member reiterated past concerns about how the board is operating. It hired T.J. Kennedy, formerly director-public safety and security at Raytheon, to be its deputy general manager, and Ed Parkinson, ex-staff member for the House Homeland Security Committee, as director-government affairs, it said in a news release Wednesday (http://1.usa.gov/133rbJG). FirstNet board member Paul Fitzgerald, sheriff of Story County, Iowa, Wednesday reiterated past concerns about the motion regarding FirstNet’s transparency he attempted to offer in April. Fitzgerald said he has received “several inquiries” on the FirstNet Special Review Committee the board formed after his concerns were raised. “As part of that process, in mid-July, I presented a lengthy document for review and supporting evidence in relation to each of the points I raised in my motion to the lawyers acting as counsel to the Special Review Committee,” Fitzgerald wrote in a news release earlier Wednesday. “Prior to my meeting with the Special Review Committee, I met with and presented that document and supporting evidence to the Inspector General Department of Commerce and his staff.” He won’t comment on the presentation as all parties continue their investigations, but is “hopeful” FirstNet will improve transparency through reforms, he said. He called the April motion “a last resort, after having been unable to obtain any meaningful responses to my often-raised concerns within the FirstNet Board.”