FCC Fines Marriott for Blocking Exhibitors’ Wi-Fi

We would guess that most members of our Association have walked into a convention hotel or exhibit hall ready to setup their display only to find that the Wi-Fi service on their phones and computers simply would not connect, with the only alternative being purchasing service from the hotel, convention center. Turns out the problem might not have been your location or the exhibit hall’s distance from the cell tower, but the high-cost Wi-Fi provider actually blocking your signal.

Last fall the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) fined Marriott International $600,000 for preventing customers from using their own Wi-Fi devices at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center in Nashville. The commission said the hotel charged people attending and exhibiting at a conference $250 to $1,000 per device to connect to the hotel-operated Wi-Fi service. The New York Times reports that the commission had previously prohibited Boston’s Logan International Airport from blocking Wi-Fi networks set up by airline clubs.

Now Marriott and the American Hotel and Lodging Association are asking the FCC to give hotels the green light to remotely disable the Wi-Fi devices that some travelers use to connect their laptops and tablet computers to the Internet through cellular services.

Google and Microsoft recently joined the wireless industry’s lobbying group and a handful of other parties in opposing the hotel industry’s petition, which seeks the FCC’s permission to block personal Wi-Fi networks on their properties.

We believe most exhibitors and hotel guests would agree that, as we become more dependent on our communication devices, it’s important that the FCC not allow venues of any type to block signals in an attempt pick the pockets of a captive audience. S