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Marriott Ordered to Pay $600k for Blocking Personal Wi-Fi Hotspots

posted by LaminatorX on Saturday October 04 2014, @07:51AM   
from the Thou-shalt-not-jam! dept.

AnonTechie writes:

Marriott International has to pay $600,000 following an investigation into whether it intentionally blocked personal Wi-Fi hotspots in order to force customers to use its own pricey service.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission looked into allegations that employees of Marriott's Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center in Nashville used signal-blocking features of a Wi-Fi monitoring system to prevent customers from connecting to the Internet through their personal Wi-Fi hotspots, the regulator said in its consent decree ( https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-14-1444A1.pdf ). The hotel charged customers and exhibitors $250 to $1,000 per device to access Marriott's Wi-Fi network.
The hotel's Wi-Fi blocking violated the U.S. Communications Act, the FCC said.

http://www.computerworld.com/article/2690885/marriott-ordered-to-pay-600k-for-blocking-personal-wi-fi-hotspots.html

• Re:So who can do this? (Score: 3, Insightful) by Tork on Saturday October 04 2014, @09:35AM

  by Tork (3914) on Saturday October 04 2014, @09:35AM (#101649)

  I don't know if it mattsrs in this context, but one of thw FCC rules of gwtting a Ham Radio license is 'shalt not jam'. I'm guessimg that's a general directive for anything non-combat related. Also non-jammed signals can be listened to.

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