The House Commerce Committee cleared two key telecom bills Wednesday, as expected (CD Dec 10 p3). The panel unanimously passed by voice vote the FCC Process Reform Act and the Federal Spectrum Incentive Act. Reps. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., and Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., introduced the Federal Spectrum Incentive Act, HR-3674 (http://1.usa.gov/1gTEKmX), Monday to much initial acclaim, while the FCC Process Reform Act, HR-3675 (http://1.usa.gov/IBxQXF), introduced earlier this year, was revived as part of a bipartisan compromise between Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., and ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. Industry welcomed the process revamp to come.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler backs a draft proposal to authorize cellphone use on airplanes in-flight, in prepared testimony for a Thursday House Communications Subcommittee oversight hearing. “I do not want the person in the seat next to me yapping at 35,000 feet any more than anyone else,” Wheeler plans to tell Congress (http://1.usa.gov/1bWwJOQ). “But we are not the Federal Courtesy Commission.”

Federal law claims can be adjudicated in federal court even when there’s an ongoing state proceeding on the issue, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously (http://1.usa.gov/IO5ZD5) Tuesday. “Federal courts are obliged to decide cases within the scope of federal jurisdiction,” wrote Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg for the entire high court. “Abstention is not in order simply because a pending state-court proceeding involves the same subject matter.”

The possibility of bidding restrictions remained a key part of the incentive auction debate as the Senate Commerce Committee quizzed witnesses Tuesday. The FCC has been urged to limit participation of AT&T and Verizon Wireless. The hearing was less than a week after FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said he would delay the auction from potentially late 2014 to mid-2015 (CD Dec 9 p1).

EAGLE-Net was transparent in its dealings with NTIA to choose Affiniti as its network operator, CEO Mike Ryan told the Colorado Legislative Audit Committee Monday. EAGLE-Net had told the committee in September that it was in the process of finding an operator. Affiniti met EAGLE-Net’s four objectives in that process: To provide day-to-day management; long-term sustainability; an open access, middle-mile broadband buildout to schools; and to invest $8 million in the company’s mission, said Ryan. Affiniti serves rural and underserved markets in education, healthcare, E-911 and government agencies, said Ryan. “Affiniti specializes in building and managing proprietary networks, and they are one of the largest WAN operators serving K-12 education in the country.”

AT&T “would be supportive of rules around the [broadcast incentive] auction that would limit the amount of spectrum any one company could garner,” as long as “everyone is bound” to those rules, CEO Randall Stephenson said Tuesday at a UBS investor conference. “That seems like a reasonable place for us. ... The more restrictions you begin to put on the auction participants, the more it drives the value down and the more risk you have of a failed auction.”

Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Edward Markey, D-Mass., reintroduced the Community Access Preservation (CAP) Act Tuesday, which is aimed at keeping public, educational and government (PEG) channels afloat. The latest version left out a requirement for the FCC to do a study of the PEG community. The bill maintains the previous version’s calls for flexible use of PEG fees and requires cable operators to provide support for PEG channels required under state law.

Aereo is nearing agreements with two consumer electronics manufacturers to build its live TV streaming service app into smart TVs starting in 2014, CEO Chet Kanojia said Tuesday at a UBS investor conference in New York.

The FCC Wireline Bureau suspended AT&T’s special access tariff revisions Monday. Agency officials told us the burden now shifts to the telco to demonstrate its filings are just and reasonable. The agency has five months to investigate, and the bureau will soon release a more detailed order focusing on specific questions and issues, commission officials said. They said all stakeholders will be able to file comments responding to AT&T’s comments. AT&T had sought to eliminate long-term contracts on its DS1 and DS3 special access services (CD Nov 26 p3).

Verizon will use a combination of LTE multicasting and acquired Advanced Wireless Spectrum (AWS) to deliver live video programming in 2014, starting with the Feb. 2 Super Bowl, CEO Lowell McAdam said at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference Monday in New York.