The
hotel chain Marriott said this week that it will no longer prevent guests from creating WiFi hot spots with smartphones or other personal devices.
But the company adds in a statement that it will
continue to press the Federal Communications Commission “to clarify appropriate security measures network operators can take to protect customer data.”
The about-face comes several
months after the Federal Communications Commission fined Marriott $600,000 for blocking WiFi hotspots at the Gaylord Opryland, in Nashville. The hotel charged guests and exhibitors at the Gaylord
Opryland as much as $1,000 a day to use its WiFi, according to the FCC.
Marriott subsequently petitioned the FCC for permission to block guests from establishing WiFi hot spots, arguing that
they pose a security threat.
A host of consumer groups and tech companies, including Google and Microsoft, opposed Marriott's request. “Allowing hotels or other property owners
deliberately to block third parties’ access to WiFi signals would undermine the public interest benefits of unlicensed use,” Google wrote in its FCC filing.
“Consumers
increasingly rely on WiFi and VoIP technologies to make calls when carrier voice service is not available, and this includes calls to emergency services. Especially in a place of public accommodation,
disconnecting network connections on which users rely puts health and safety at risk.”
“It is obvious that what Marriott is after is a means to coerce guests and visitors to pay
them for a service (WiFi connectivity) that a rapidly increasing share of consumers already pay for through their mobile carrier (e.g., via tethering apps or a portable router), and/or cable Internet
subscription (e.g., Xfinity WiFi), or even through a hotspot aggregation service (e.g., Boingo),” advocacy group Public Interest added in its filing. “It would be both anti-competitive and
immensely disruptive if the Commission accedes to Petitioners’ proposal and gives every major venue the ability to block rival sources of WiFi.”
"WI-FI Symbol" photo from Shutterstock.