Marriott International and its subsidiary, Marriott Hotel Services,...
Marriott International and its subsidiary, Marriott Hotel Services, will pay $600,000 to resolve an FCC investigation into whether Marriott intentionally interfered with and disabled Wi-Fi networks at a Tennessee convention center, the agency said Friday (http://fcc.us/1rRzKH2). Marriott employees had used…
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containment features of a Wi-Fi monitoring system at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center in Nashville to prevent individuals from connecting to the Internet via their own personal Wi-Fi networks, the agency said. At the same time, Marriott charged consumers, small businesses and exhibitors as much as $1,000 per device to access Marriott’s Wi-Fi network, the agency said. The actions violated Section 333 of the Communications Act, said the commission. “It is unacceptable for any hotel to intentionally disable personal hotspots while also charging consumers and small businesses high fees to use the hotel’s own Wi-Fi network,” said Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc in a news release. “This practice puts consumers in the untenable position of either paying twice for the same service or forgoing Internet access altogether.” Marriott also agreed under a consent decree (http://bit.ly/1BDuFDj) to cease the unlawful use of Wi-Fi blocking technology and take steps to improve how it monitors and uses its Wi-Fi technology at Gaylord Opryland, the release said. Marriott must put in place a compliance plan and file compliance and usage reports with the bureau every three months for three years, including documentation of any use of access point containment features at any U.S. property that Marriott manages or owns, the release said. Marriott was not immediately available for comment.