With the FCC pretty much laughing off Marriott's request for permission to block guests' access to external Wi-Fi networks, the hotel chain has decided to withdraw its petition in a late attempt to save face. "We thought we were doing the right thing asking the FCC to provide guidance, but the FCC has indicated its opposition," Bruce Hoffmeister, Marriott's chief information officer, says in a statement.

"We thought we were doing the right thing."

Marriott filed its petition with the FCC last year, requesting that it be allowed to "monitor and mitigate threats" to its network, even if that meant interfering with guests' devices. The FCC and many others read this as Marriott wanting to block guests' Wi-Fi hotspots and access to other external networks so that they'd be forced to pay for access to the hotel's wireless service. The hotel chain says that its intent "was to protect personal data in Wi-Fi hotspots for large conferences."

Two other parties filed the petition alongside Marriott, and they have both also decided to withdraw. That kills the petition, though there wasn't much life left in it anyway: on Tuesday, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler said that the petition was "contrary" to a basic principle laid out in the Communications Act. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel was more blunt about Marriott's proposal, directly calling it "a bad idea."

Marriott says in a statement that it will not block Wi-Fi signals at any hotel that it manages, which is probably a good policy because, as the FCC says, that's also the law. Marriott does plan to continue looking for ways to manage security threats to its networks, but it says that it plans to do so in ways "that do not involve blocking our guests' use of their Wi-Fi devices."