Marriott International was fined $600,000 by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission for allegedly blocking customers from using mobile hotspots at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, Tenn., and charging for access to the hotel’s wireless network. According to Bloomberg, consumers, small businesses, and exhibitors who were blocked from connecting to the Internet on personal WiFi networks were charged as much as $1,000 per device to access the resort’s WiFi network.
In response, Marriott released the following statement today: “Marriott has a strong interest in ensuring that when our guests use our WiFi service, they will be protected from rogue wireless hotspots that can cause degraded service, insidious cyber-attacks, and identity theft. Like many other institutions and companies in a wide variety of industries, including hospitals and universities, the Gaylord Opryland protected its WiFi network by using FCC-authorized equipment provided by well-known, reputable manufacturers. We believe that the Gaylord Opryland’s actions were lawful. We will continue to encourage the FCC to pursue a rulemaking in order to eliminate the ongoing confusion resulting from today’s action and to assess the merits of its underlying policy.”
