Company Fined for Blocking Wi-Fi Hotspots at Convention Centers

According to a report in The Consumerist, in Section 333 of the Communications Act, it states that “No person shall willfully or maliciously interfere with or cause interference” with any licensed or authorized radio communications. But a company that provides Internet service for hotels and convention centers around the country has admitted to deliberately preventing people from using their own, legal hotspots to go online.

According to a consent decree filed by the FCC, the Commission received a complaint from a hotspot provider in 2014 that Smart City Holdings — which operates large hotel and convention center telecom, broadband, and Wi-Fi networks — was jamming the connections of certain people who used hotspots instead of paying to connect to their Wi-Fi.

Read the story