Marriott to pay $600,000 settlement for jamming Wi-Fi hotspots

[Dietrichw]

Source

 

 

Marriott will pay $600,000 to settle a FCC investigation of an incident in one of the chains hotels where staff were jamming Wi-Fi hotspots for the purposed of forcing customers to pay to use the hotel's networks. The location responsible for jamming Wi-Fi hotspots was the Gaylord Opryland Hotel & Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee. That Marriot was selling internet services at the rate of $250 to $1,000 per access point.

 

"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

[Virgule]

What a disgrace.

[NotCthulhu]

Ha Gaylord

[Jaybird]

I think all hotel internet is a scam if it isn't free and fast.

[Vacsol]

Ha Gaylord

I was scrolling down to type that exact comment when I saw yours.

[Mooshi]

If only the FCC had those iron balls to slap around American ISPs like Comcast around.

[Nineshadow]

Oh, I know someone working at Marriott hotel in London D:

[Manny Calavera]

Luxurious internet access hahaaha

[qwertywarrior]

wow .......

blocking such things are highly illegal

insane .......

[CtW]

I was scrolling down to type that exact comment when I saw yours.

This^^

[StingBull]

Yeah, the news lost me after the "Gaylord" part.

[Kingofpants]

I think all hotel internet is a scam if it isn't free and fast.

Well free but completely shit isn't a scam.

I one was staying at a lodge and the internet didn't have LAN isolation so you could see the LAN neighbours and there were like 70 people on, and The internet was so Bad, It was ~0.5-1 Mbps and it had 40% packet loss.

The Slow internet is acceptable since its hard to get fast internet in Canadian mountain ranges but the packet loss is not. I went to the routers homepage and it was running some completely shit Software, and likely was running on ancient hardware, Likely they can't afford nice IT people to configure it properly.

[Tonylu1595]

lol at first I read that it was microsoft jamming the wifi.

[Jaybird]

Well free but completely shit isn't a scam.

I one was staying at a lodge and the internet didn't have LAN isolation so you could see the LAN neighbours and there were like 70 people on, and The internet was so Bad, It was ~0.5-1 Mbps and it had 40% packet loss.

The Slow internet is acceptable since its hard to get fast internet in Canadian mountain ranges but the packet loss is not. I went to the routers homepage and it was running some completely shit Software, and likely was running on ancient hardware, Likely they can't afford nice IT people to configure it properly.

Yes but when you are in the middle of Dallas and they offer free wifi but they cap you at 150 kilobytes/second down until you pay for their "high speed" which only gets you 1.5magebits down and that cost you about $10 a day. It's a scam.

[OlekKing]

LORD

[Sonefiler]

What a disgrace.

 

 

Ha Gaylord

The first two responses. This forum in a nutshell.

[Craseder]

The FCC has fined Mariott after it was deemed that they blocked personal Wi-Fi hotspots during a convention they hosted in March of 2013.  The matter was brought to the FCC's attention after a convention-goer filed a complaint claiming that the hotel was using jammers to block all Wi-Fi signals in the convention space except for its own, and proceeded to charge their customers anywhere from $250-$1000 for access to the network.  The amount they were fined?  A mere $600,000.  The company released a statement saying that "Marriott has a strong interest in ensuring that when our guests use our Wi-Fi service, they will be protected from rogue wireless hotspots that can cause degraded service, insidious cyber-attacks and identity theft."  I for one, would trust the hotel's wi-fi least of all during a convention like that, as it would be a far juicier target than an individual Wi-Fi signal, but really, $600k is a slap on the wrist.  I feel like this was all done for show so that the FCC would look like they're doing something to "protect consumers."  They should be fined that much just for making the statement.

 

Source (similar, of many):http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/10/03/marriott-fcc-nashville-fined-wifi-blocking/16648695/

[rambi36]

In b4 jokes about "gaylord"

But seriously, this was extremely evil for them to do. People should be able to use their own damn internet and not pay for shitty hotel internet.

[qwertywarrior]

repost

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/226900-marriott-to-pay-600000-settlement-for-jamming-wi-fi-hotspots/

[StingBull]

This repost is no fun. Not enough Gaylords.

[landon418]

2 damn teachers in my school jam signals.

[Trik'Stari]

2 damn teachers in my school jam signals.

That's illegal. Signal jamming of any kind by anyone other than the police (and if I remember correctly they need a warrant....or did) is highly illegal.

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

[Imaginaerum]

That's pretty weird, if I stay with them for more than 3 nights I'll ask them to reverse the wifi charges and they always do. Oh well, it's just one hotel, not worried about the others if they're still better than the wood-star hotels in a certain area.

[Unhelpful]

repost

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/226900-marriott-to-pay-600000-settlement-for-jamming-wi-fi-hotspots/

That link goes to this thread. lol