Is a ban on these devices coming to a hotel near you?

Is a ban on these devices coming to a hotel near you?

If you've ever stayed at a Marriott, you've likely been outraged over their exorbitant fees to access the Internet in your room. In 2012, these chains charged an average of $13.95 per day for basic service, despite the fact they paid an average of $2.50-$4.50 per room, per month. And when we say "basic", we mean below average, barely better than dial-up service. The fee goes up if you want to stream video to your device. It is no wonder many travelers have turned to personal WiFi devices to circumvent these overpriced and under-delivering networks.

Now Marriott and the other large hotel chains are now looking to block these personal WiFi devices all together:



Marriott International and the American Hotel and Lodging Association are asking the F.C.C. 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 from companies like Verizon. This would force guests to buy the wireless Internet service provided by hotels. In its petition, the hotel industry asks the commission to create an exception to rules that prohibit anyone from “willful or malicious interference” with wireless communications that are “licensed or authorized” by the government. The industry asserts that because Wi-Fi signals use unlicensed frequencies, they do not deserve the same protection as licensed services like cellphone networks. That is an absurd argument, since the government has authorized unlicensed Wi-Fi devices and networks. Other countries, like Britain, prohibit “deliberate interference” of wireless communications.

The airwaves that have been set aside for Wi-Fi aren’t like those used for television broadcasts or cellphone service, which require often expensive licenses to use. Like baby monitors, garage-door openers and cordless phones, Wi-Fi uses unlicensed frequencies that are open to anyone. Communications law, meanwhile, prohibits people from “willfully or maliciously” interfering with “any radio communications of any station licensed or authorized” by the government. Signal jammers are forbidden by the FCC. The hotel group says the law against willful interference of communications signals shouldn’t apply to Wi-Fi, because it doesn’t use licensed spectrum. The law also shouldn’t cover interference that results from efforts to “monitor and mitigate threats to the security and reliability of its network,” the hotel group said in an FCC filing in August.

Can you imagine the outrage if hotels blocked cell phones, forcing guests to use their profit-hogging landline phones? Of course, the American Hotel and Lodging association is saying this isn't about gouging customers, it's about protecting their networks: Never mind the financial windfall these companies would reap if the average business traveler is forced to abandon their personal device and cough up the absurdly high fee for bad-to-mediocre hotel wireless service. It's all about protecting their networks. That's their story and they are sticking to it.