FCC warns hotels to ban Wi-Fi hotspot blocking, fines Marriott International $600,000 for 'unlawful interference'

By Staff Reporter - 28 Jan '15 11:04AM

The Federal Communications Commission issued an enforcement advisory on Tuesday which ban hotels from blocking personal Wi-Fi hotspots.

"The Enforcement Bureau has seen a disturbing trend in which hotels and other commercial establishments block wireless consumers from using their own personal Wi-Fi hot spots on the commercial establishment's premises," the agency said in a statement on its website.

"Willful or malicious interference with Wi-Fi hot spots is illegal," the FCC states. "Wi-Fi blocking violates Section 333 of the Communications Act, as amended. The Enforcement Bureau has seen a disturbing trend in which hotels and other commercial establishments block wireless consumers from using their own personal Wi-Fi hot spots on the commercial establishment's premises. As a result, the Bureau is protecting consumers by aggressively investigating and acting against such unlawful intentional interference."

The FCC already cracked down on the Marriott International and fined the hotel chain $600,000 for "unlawful interference." In response, Marriott vowed to not block its guests from using their personal Wi-Fi. However, it filed a petition, along with other hotels, to the FCC to change the policy as they need to protect the reliability of their own networks, according to the Wall Street Journal.

"Marriott remains committed to protecting the security of Wi-Fi access in meeting and conference areas at our hotels. We will continue to look to the FCC to clarify appropriate security measures network operators can take to protect customer data, and will continue to work with the industry and others to find appropriate market solutions that do not involve the blocking of Wi-Fi devices," the company said.

However, the FCC rejected the petition and decided to release this warning instead.

"Consumers must get what they pay for," said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler.

"The Communications Act prohibits anyone from willfully or maliciously interfering with authorized radio communications, including Wi-Fi. Marriott's request seeking the FCC's blessing to block guests' use of non-Marriott networks is contrary to this basic principle," he added.