The Senate Intelligence Committee voted Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein’s surveillance overhaul bill out of committee by an 11-4 margin Thursday. Senate Intelligence leaders have called for more review of U.S. surveillance activities as well as more transparency and other tweaks to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. But Feinstein, D-Calif., is a strong defender of the Section 215 authorities that authorize the bulk collection of phone metadata, which other lawmakers from the House and Senate Judiciary committees have this week proposed ending as part of the USA Freedom Act (CD Oct 28 p1). Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., introduced that act in the Senate.

The Federal Aviation Administration gave its long-awaited go-ahead Thursday for travelers to use iPads, Kindles and other non-connected portable electronic devices (PEDs) during all aspects of flight and not just above 10,000 feet. But implementation won’t be instant and is at the discretion of individual airlines. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., urged caution. CEA, CTIA and other industry groups called for a change in U.S. policy last year in filings at the FAA (CD Nov 2/12 p9). A PED Aviation Rulemaking Committee filed a report at the FAA recommending the change (CD Oct 2 p13).

Two Colorado municipalities vote Tuesday whether to expand their fiber networks to reach more residents. In 2005, the Legislature adopted Senate Bill 05-152 to limit local governments from providing advanced Internet, telecom and cable-TV services for their communities unless the municipalities can get enough votes through a referendum. Centennial and Longmont began ballot initiatives to expand their existing fiber networks. Nineteen states have put up barriers to discourage local governments from creating networks, Chris Mitchell, telecom director at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, told us. “Colorado’s law is not as draconian as Texas or California, but industry is still fighting to limit municipalities.”

Tom Wheeler is getting ready to take command at the FCC next week after being confirmed along with Michael O'Rielly to the commission seats Tuesday night. Wheeler is expected to be sworn in Monday morning, FCC officials said. In the intervening days the administration has to complete paperwork to confirm the appointment, a process that generally takes several days, and will likely finish getting rid of any remaining financial entanglements, said current and former officials. Wheeler is also expected to unveil some of his key staff selections early in the week, officials said.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., claimed responsibility for the swift confirmation by unanimous consent of FCC nominees Tom Wheeler for chairman and Mike O'Rielly for commissioner Tuesday evening, after Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, lifted his hold in the afternoon. “As Chairman, Rockefeller was always deeply involved in moving Tom Wheeler and Mike O'Rielly’s nominations through the Senate,” a Senate Commerce Committee spokesman told us. “For weeks the Chairman was both publicly and privately urging his colleagues to approve these nominations, including at the Democratic Caucus lunch on Tuesday."

New reports the National Security Agency is secretly tapping the links connecting Google and Yahoo’s data centers around the world may cause alterations to the recently released USA Freedom Act, privacy advocates said in interviews Wednesday. But the reports aren’t likely to affect Google and Yahoo’s joint Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court petition to disclose more information about government surveillance requests, agreed advocates and an organization that filed an amicus brief in the lawsuit. The Washington Post reported (http://wapo.st/1dNYzxr) the existence of the program, called MUSCULAR, Wednesday afternoon, and the NSA denied it minutes later.

Deregulating the telecom industry can work for some states if the market remains competitive for the consumer, but residential and business services are inherently different in terms of regulations, said panelists at a National Regulatory Research Institute teleseminar Wednesday. About 27 states have deregulated their wireline, wireless, VoIP or cable services in some way, but regulations still exist for rural areas where competition is limited, said NRRI Principal Sherry Lichtenberg. However, these states have all deregulated in different manners, from legislation through state legislatures to state regulatory agency proceedings, she said.

Sprint is making substantial progress on the buildout of the 2.5 GHz spectrum the carrier got from Clearwire through its Network Vision LTE project, CEO Dan Hesse said on an earnings call Wednesday. Later in the day, Sprint unveiled its new Sprint Spark brand, which it said would offer connection speeds as fast as 1 GHz, with initial speeds of 50-60 Mbps. Sprint acknowledged it lost 360,000 contract subscribers in Q3, which was less than expected based on a consensus estimate. Some of the losses were tied to the carrier’s shutting down its Nextel network on June 30, the company said. Sprint reported net profits of $383 million, compared with a $767 million loss the same quarter last year.

Look for cable operators to further improve user interfaces to better integrate a wider array of apps, including those from other companies, devices from many makers of consumer electronics and video ranging from what the operators provide through encrypted delivery to what’s available publicly online. Those are among the forecasts from CE, cable R&D and operator executives informally surveyed by Communications Daily this summer and fall. Some top cable operators including Comcast portrayed at NCTA’s Cable Show (CD June 11 p11; June 12 p14) and in other forums their firms as high-technology and software companies when describing their tech improvements. Executives told us later that those improvements are aimed at making it easier for customers to navigate the plethora of content from multiple sources many now can access.

The Senate confirmed Tom Wheeler as FCC chairman and Michael O'Rielly as commissioner, once again bringing the agency up to five members. The action announced after our deadline Tuesday evening came after Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, met with Wheeler and subsequently lifted his hold on the nomination. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., on Monday filed for cloture, a procedural motion seeking to end debate on the Wheeler nomination (CD Oct 29 p8).