....integrity:

Marriott fined $600,000 for jamming guests' Wi-Fi
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Friday - 10/3/2014, 7:20pm ET

SCOTT MAYEROWITZ
AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- Marriott International will pay a $600,000 fine for
jamming conference attendees' own Wi-Fi networks at its Gaylord Opryland
Resort and Convention Center, forcing them to pay hefty prices to use
the hotel's own connection.

Frequent travelers often carry personal Wi-Fi hotspots -- tiny devices
that can connect to the Internet via cell phone towers. For $50 a month,
they can connect to the Internet on the move, often avoiding hefty fees
charged by hotels, airports and conference facilities. Some people
upgrade their wireless data plans to make their smartphones into hotspots.

Last year, a conference attendee at the Opryland hotel in Nashville,
Tennessee -- which is managed by Marriott -- found that the hotel was
jamming devices in its ballrooms and complained to the Federal
Communications Commission. In the complaint, the guest noted that the
same thing happened previously at another Gaylord property. The block
didn't affect Wi-Fi access in guest rooms.

While jamming personal Wi-Fi connections, Marriott was charging
conference organizers and exhibitors between $250 and $1,000, per access
point, to use the Gaylord's Wi-Fi connection. The FCC declined to
release the initial guest complaint except if requested under the
Freedom of Information Act, a process that can often take weeks.

Marriott agreed to the fine and has instructed its hotels not to use the
jamming technology in the way it was used at Opryland, according to the
FCC. But the company on Friday defended the blocking of guests' own
Wi-Fi networks in the interest of network security. The company said 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," adding that hospitals and
universities employee similar jamming practices.

At the four Gaylord hotels in the U.S., Marriott today monitors for
hotspots causing interference but does not automatically block such
connections, said Harvey Kellman, a lawyer for the hotel company. Only a
handful of Marriott's 4,000 other hotels worldwide currently screen for
hotspot interference.

Marriott said it encourages the FCC to change its rules "to eliminate
the ongoing confusion" and "to assess the merits of its underlying policy."

The government said people who purchase cellular data plans should be
able to use them without fear that their personal connection will be
blocked.

"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," Travis LeBlanc, chief of the FCC's
enforcement bureau said in a statement. "This practice puts consumers in
the untenable position of either paying twice for the same service or
forgoing Internet access altogether."


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