Mobile subscribers who want to use their phones as personal hot spots have a right to do so, even if they interfere with other Wi-Fi connections. That’s the opinion of the Federal Communications Commission, which has again fined a Wi-Fi network operator for blocking personal hot spots.
Smart City Networks has agreed to pay $750,000 for blocking personal Wi-Fi hot spots, saying it has done nothing wrong but does not want to engage in a court battle. The company specializes in event and trade show networks, and said it used standard equipment to keep wireless devices from interfering with the Wi-Fi network used by exhibitors.
“As recommended by the Department of Commerce and Department of Defense, we have occasionally used technologies made available by major equipment manufacturers to prevent wireless devices from significantly interfering with and disrupting the operations of neighboring exhibitors on our convention floors,” said Smart City Networks President Mark Haley. “This activity resulted in significantly less than 1% of all devices being deauthenticated.”
The FCC said that Smart City charged exhibitors and visitors $80 per day to access the company’s Wi-Fi services in certain venues. The agency said that Smart City automatically blocked devices belonging to users that did not pay the fee.
Smart City said it stopped blocking personal hot spots after it was contacted by the FCC last October. Even without a note from the FCC, Smart City might have known by October that it was breaking the rules. That was the month that Marriott International agreed to pay the FCC $600,000 for blocking user-initiated Wi-Fi at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center in Nashville, Tenn.
“All companies who seek to use technologies that block FCC-approved Wi-Fi connections are on notice that such practices are patently unlawful,” said Travis LeBlanc, chief of the FCC’s enforcement bureau. The FCC said that federal law prohibits the sale or operation of devices that interfere with Wi-Fi, cellular or public safety communications. This refers to devices that are designed to jam signals, not to smartphones that may interfere with venue Wi-Fi when operated as a hot spot.
Some Wi-Fi network operators point out that when personal hot spots interfere with their networks they diminish the experience for paying customers. But the FCC said consumers’ digital rights come first.
“It is unacceptable for any company to charge consumers exorbitant fees to access the Internet while at the same time blocking them from using their own personal Wi-Fi hot spots to access the Internet,” said LeBlanc.
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