Hotels Withdraw Request to Block Personal Wi-Fi Hotspots

Congratulations, once and future hotel guests: Marriott International and the hotel industry withdrew their request Friday for FCC approval to block some personal Wi-Fi hotspots on their properties.

Marriott and the hotel industry had asked the FCC for permission to block Wi-Fi hotspots on their properties because of what they said were concerns about hacking. Marriott clarified its request recently, saying that it wouldn’t block guests from using their own Wi-Fi hotspots in hotel rooms, but would like to block them in convention or meeting spaces.

That argument didn’t appear to convince a lot of people, who assumed instead that the hotel industry was more interested in protecting the revenue they receive from offering wireless Internet service than snuffing out rogue hotspots.

Earlier this week, two senior FCC officials blasted the hotel industry’s plan and the agency issued a warning to hotels and others that blocking wireless hotspots is illegal.

“It is clear that the petition is not achieving this goal, and that we must work in other ways to resolve this issue of consumer safety and cybersecurity,” the American Hotel & Lodging Association said in a statement announcing the withdrawal of its request.

In a separate statement, Marriott said, “We thought we were doing the right thing asking the FCC to provide guidance, but the FCC has indicated its opposition. As we have said, we will not block Wi-Fi signals at any hotel we manage for any reason.”

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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