The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced a $750,000 settlement with Smart City Holdings, LLC for blocking the use of customer’s personal Wi-Fi hotspots at convention centers.
Smart City is an internet and telecommunications provider for various major U.S. convention centers, including those in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Houston, Indianapolis and Atlantic City.
According to an official FCC release Smart City charged exhibitors and visitors an $80 fee to access the company’s Wi-Fi services for a single day. The FCC’s investigation revealed that if exhibitors or visitors did not pay the $80 fee, Smart City would block users from accessing the Internet via hotspot.
“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 hotspots to access the Internet,” said Travis LeBlanc, Chief of the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau. “All companies who seek to use technologies that block FCC-approved Wi-Fi connections are on notice that such practices are patently unlawful.”
LeBlanc’s statement aligns with a previous FCC ruling last October in which Marriott International was fined $600,000 for a similar Wi-Fi blocking incident at its Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville. The hotel disabled personal network access and charged $650 to $1,000 per device for use of its own.
The FCC’s settlement with Smart City included the stipulations that it pay the $750,000 fine and also cease all Wi-Fi blocking operations going forward. Smart City maintained that it was not acting maliciously and only blocked outside Wi-Fi access for security purposes.
Smart City President Mark Haley also noted that the company stopped using its Wi-Fi blocking technology after it was contacted by the FCC in October 2014.
A full list of the convention centers that utilize Smart City’s services can be found via the following link:
www.smartcitynetworks.com/facilities/
