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Google and Microsoft Team Up Against Hotel Industry on Wi-Fi Jamming

Dennis Schaal photo
Dennis Schaal

Photo Credit: A hotel industry petition seeks to endorse the practice of jamming a property's Wi-Fi so that guests and conference attendees wouldn't be able to use their own Mi-Fi capabilities. Pictured is a Wi-Fi promotion from Marriott, which the FCC fined for jamming several months ago. Marriott International

Skift Take

Google and Microsoft are teaming up against Marriott, Hilton and the rest of the hotel industry over travelers' rights to independent Wi-Fi access when they stay at or visit a hotel.

The battle over hotel Wi-Fi is not merely whether it is provided for free or for a fee: There is also a fight at the FCC that boils down to the issue of whether guests essentially will be forced to use a property's Wi-Fi network or whether they can bring their own. The FCC several months ago fined Marriott $600,000 for the practice of jamming conference attendees' personal Wi-Fi hotspots in ballrooms at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Marriott and the American Hotel & Lodging Association subsequently petitioned the FCC asking for a declaratory ruling or a rulemaking that would effectively endorse the practice that Marriott got fined for. In th

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