FCC Gets It Right
CNN reports that Marriott was fined $600,000 by FCC for blocking guests’ Wi-Fi.
Marriott was the hotel for a conference in Nashville and they blocked the ability of people at the conference to use their personal cellular ‘Hot Spots’. They claimed it was to protect the Internet and not to make money from the $1000 they charged vendors or $250 that they charged individuals to use the hotel’s WiFi [Yeah, right].
The fine was for interfering with cellular service.
There are legal ways of jamming cellular service that are used by hospitals and others with valid concerns about cellular interference with instruments and necessary equipment, but they require an FCC authorized device and prior notification. Marriott apparently ramped up the power on their WiFi system to ‘drown out’ other WiFi signals.
October 4, 2014 6 Comments
