Sunday, 5 October 2014

After blocking personal hotspot at hotel, Marriott to pay FCC $600,000

Marriott practices were called into question when a guest complained that they were, "jamming mobile hotspots so you can’t use them in the convention space."

By way of reply Marriott claimed that, "Marriott has a strong interest in ensuring that when our guests use our Wi-Fi service, they will be protected from rogue wireless hotspots that can cause degraded service, insidious cyber-attacks & identity theft."

Apparently, they are not concerned with ensuring that guests use Marriott's own network services at between $250 & $1,000 per access point.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/10/after-blocking-personal-hotspot-at-hotel-marriott-to-pay-fcc-600000/ / hotel sells dedicated wireless services custom networks convention prices access point Gaylord Opryland hotel Nashville Tennessee block guests' personal hotspots Marriott Hotel Services $600,000 agreement penalty Federal Communications Commission settle allegations hotel chain interfered disabled Wi-Fi networks consumer consumers conference facilities Nashville hotel March 2013 nine-page jamming mobile hotspots convention space FCC employees containment features WiFi monitoring system prevent consumers connecting to the Internet personal WiFi networks personal portable Wi-Fi WiFi device data leakage violation advisories forbids blocking jamming interference authorized radio communications Jeff Flaherty Marriott spokesman /