FCC Says Blocking WiFi Is A Big No No

You might recall that a hotel chain got smacked down pretty hard by the FCC because of the fact that they wanted to block any WiFi signal that they did not control. Plus when the pushed the issue, all the negative press forced them to back down. Yesterday, the FCC sent out this edict: Blocking WiFi is verboten:

Wi-Fi blocking violates Section 333 of the Communications Act, as amended. The Enforcement Bureau has seen a disturbing trend in which hotels and other commercial establishments block wireless consumers from using their own personal Wi-Fi hot spots on the commercial establishment’s premises. As a result, the Bureau is protecting consumers by aggressively investigating and acting against such unlawful intentional interference.

I for one am overjoyed with this because WiFi in hotels is not only hit or miss, but it’s sometimes rather expensive to use. Thus it sometimes makes using my iPhone 5s as a mobile hotspot an attractive option. Hopefully when some hotel chain tries to push the FCC on this, which they will, the FCC really takes them to the metaphorical woodshed.

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