Category: Uncategorised

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai. (credit: FCC)

Charter Communications is close to winning approval of its acquisition of Time Warner Cable (TWC), but Federal Communications Commission member Ajit Pai is voting against the deal.

Pai, a Republican, isn't opposed to the cable merger itself, which will make Charter the nation's second largest broadband provider after Comcast. Instead, Pai objects to the conditions that FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has proposed imposing on the deal. Charter should be able to buy TWC without facing onerous requirements, Pai says.

"The FCC's merger review process is badly broken," a Pai spokesperson said, according to an article in The Hill. "Chairman Wheeler's order isn't about competition, competition, competition; it's about regulation, regulation, regulation. It's about imposing conditions that have nothing to do with the merits of this transaction. It's about the government micromanaging the Internet economy."

FAA administrator Michael Huerta told attendees at this week's drone conference that the FAA is forming an advisory committee led by Intel CEO Brian Krzanich to help prioritize drone rulemaking work. (credit: Sean Gallagher)

NEW ORLEANS—Former Cisco CEO John Chambers delivered a keynote on Tuesday at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) XPONENTIAL conference, slamming the Obama administration for moving too slowly on adjusting regulations governing commercial and private drones.

Chambers said that Obama doesn't "get" drones and that the US is potentially being left behind in a market that he claimed could drive trillions of dollars in economic impact. His remarks drew loud applause from the audience of attendees—many of whom represented companies eager to cash in on drones as either vendors or customers.

Federal Aviation Administration administrator Michael Huerta responded on Wednesday with a talk about the FAA's progress on drone regulations before the same audience that Huerta had previously called "a lion's den" in his last appearance at AUVSI's flagship conference four years ago. But, he joked, "We're getting to know each other so well that UAS conventions are getting to be like family reunions."

The boat that was in the running to be called Boaty McBoatface has been officially named the RRS Sir David Attenborough.

3 more images in gallery

The UK's new £200 million polar research ship will not be called Boaty McBoatface. The decision was announced early on Friday morning by the UK science minister, Jo Johnson.

Instead, the new ship will be called the RRS (Royal Research Ship) Sir David Attenborough—a name that also picked up a few votes in the same poll that saw Boaty McBoatface come out way on top.

Showing at least a little bit of political savvy, Jo Johnson didn't completely discard the people's choice: RRS Sir David Attenborough will be outfitted with a number of remotely operated underwater vehicles (see gallery above), and one of those will be called Boaty McBoatface. Hopefully they'll paint a dorky face on the front of its torpedo-like frame.