14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft, Google, and a few other large companies are joining forces for the fight against new regulations proposed by the hotel industry that would ban personal Wi-Fi networks created by guests.
It all started this summer, when the American Hospitality & Lodging Association and Marriott International asked the FCC to create a new set of regulations that would allow hotels to block personal Wi-Fi networks using specialized equipment and instead keep its wireless connections alive.
As re/code notes, the organization explained that it should be legal for hotels to use equipment that “may result in ‘interference with or cause interference’ to a [wireless device] being used by a guest on the operator’s property,” and thus make it possible to “offer a secure and reliable Wi-Fi service to guests.”
But Microsoft, Google, and a group of other companies joined forces in a group called CTIA, which claims that all devices, be they phones, laptops, or tablets, have “equal rights to use unlicensed spectrum” and no one can ban them from doing this.
Microsoft and Google fighting for the same cause
Even though they're not quite the BFFs, Google and Microsoft are fighting for the same cause this time and claim that hotels should not be allowed to block personal Wi-Fi networks.
Here's what Google wrote in a filing with the FCC:
“Allowing hotels or other property owners deliberately to block third parties’ access to Wi-Fi signals would undermine the public interest benefits of unlicensed use.”
Microsoft said pretty much the same thing, pointing out that all people should be able to create their own Wi-Fi networks, and blocking them would be a conscious and deliberate act that exploits Wi-Fi operating protocols to interfere with authorized radio communications and would, therefore, be willful, as it explained in the filing.
Marriott already involved in such a case
Marriott is one of the hotels that were involved in a legal dispute over bans it imposed to guests who created personal Wi-Fi hotposts, but the company settled the case for $600,000 (€492,000).
Mariott blocked customers from turning their smartphones into personal Wi-Fi hotspots in the convention center at Opryland, but the company claimed in the settlement that it didn't infringe any laws, because its only intention was to provide more secure connections for its guests.
The problem, however, was that Marriott tried to block customers from creating their own Wi-Fi networks, but instead charged guests up to $1,000 (€730) for access to its own Wi-Fi connection, according to the same sources citing FCC documents.