FCC fines company $750000 for blocking Wi-Fi hotspots

Smart City provides telecom services to convention centers all over the country and charges an insulting $80 fee for a single day of wifi service. An FCC investigation revealed that, if exhibitors or visitors to the convention centers did not pay this $80 fee, Smart City would automatically block users from accessing the Internet when they instead attempted to use their personal cellular data plans to establish mobile Wi-Fi networks – or “hotspots” – to connect their Wi-Fi enabled devices to the Internet. “All companies who seek to use technologies that block FCC-approved Wi-Fi connections are on notice that such practices are patently unlawful.”This is the second time the FCC has had to step in and slap some wrists”. In October 2014, the FCC fined Marriott global, Inc. and Marriott Hotel Services, Inc.

The FCC said the convention centers in question were in Cincinnati, Ohio; Columbus, Ohio; Indianapolis, Indiana; Orlando, Florida; and Phoenix, Arizona.

A settlement between Smart City and the FCC has been struck.

The Federal Communications Commission made its position on this clear earlier this, issuing a warning that blocking personal Wi-Fi is against the law, and that it “will take appropriate action against violators”.

The commission has held that willful blocking of Wi-Fi hot spots is illegal and violates section 333 of the Communications Act, unless it is done in response to a specific security threat. Predictably, when hotel patrons would complain about not being able to access the Internet with their smartphones or mobile Wi-Fi hotspots, hotel personnel would offer their own high-speed Internet services at a cost of $250 to $1,000.

Under the terms of the consent decree, Smart City will have to pay out the $750,000 penalty to the government and will also be forced to provide compliance updates every three months to the FCC for the next three years. “We are not gatekeepers to the Internet. We are eager to return our energies to providing leadership to our industry and delivering world-class services to our clients”.

“This activity resulted in significantly less than one percent of all devices being deauthenticated and these same technologies are widely used by major convention centers across the globe as well as many federal agencies”, he said.

“While we have strong legal arguments, we’ve determined that mounting a vigorous defense would ultimately prove too great a distraction for our leadership team”, said Haley in the statement.