The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) opened two separate cases against Hilton Hotels and M.C. Dean, a Wi-Fi provider for the Baltimore Convention Center, on Tues., November 3.
In the first case, the FCC hit M.C. Dean with a $718,000 fine for interfering with Wi-Fi hotspots at the Baltimore Convention Center. And in the second case, Hilton was charged with failing to cooperate with the FCC’s investigations into hotel Wi-Fi blocking, which comes with a $25,000 fine.
Last year, the FCC began cracking down on hotel and Wi-Fi providers that were illegally preventing the use of Wi-Fi hotspots by guests and attendees, and in some cases, further revoking their Wi-Fi access. Marriott was fined $600,000 in late 2014 and Smart City Holdings was later fined $700,000 in August.
It should be noted that Hilton was not found guilty of selective Wi-Fi blocking, but that its failure to cooperate with investigations is what resulted in the FCC fine.
