During a conference held at the Marriott-owned Opryland hotel in Nashville, Tenn. last year, the hotel allegedly jammed Wi-Fi networks which forced conference attendees to pay anywhere between $250 to $1,000 for the hotel’s own Wi-Fi services, the Associated Press reported this week.
Smart-phone owners who travel regularly tend to pay extra money on their cell phone plans each month in order to gain access to Wi-Fi hotspots during their travels. Enraged at the numerous and hefty charges, guests alerted the FCC about this occurrence. Marriott International has three other Gaylord hotels in the United States and guests have noted that this Wi-Fi jamming has previously happened to them at these properties as well.
Marriott International faces a $600,000 fine for this offense. The company has agreed to pay the fine but defends its decision to jam Wi-Fi connections.
“It is legal to use FCC-approved technology to protect its Wi-Fi service against rogue wireless hotspots that can cause degraded service, insidious cyber-attacks and identity theft,” the company said.
However, the FCC doesn’t agree.
“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. This practice puts consumers in the untenable position of either paying twice for the same service or forgoing Internet access altogether,” Travis LeBlanc, chief of the FCC’s enforcement bureau, said.
