Marriott Abandons FCC Petition for Hotel Wi-Fi Blocking

Marriott has officially withdrawn a petition to the Federal Communications Commission that the company hoped would help "clarify" just what, exactly, it could do to block or otherwise prohibit its guests from connecting to anything but Marriott hotels' wireless networks.

We're pretty sure that the move would effectively hack off just about anyone who doesn't work for Marriott—at least, based on our typical experience with the quality of typical hotel Wi-Fi (and worse, its high cost). The move was basically Marriott's final hope to come up with some kind of a means for ensuring that its hotel guests could only use Marriott wireless networks, and that's even after the hotel chain paid a hefty $600K fine this past October for trying to handle the issue its own way.

"Marriott International has decided to withdraw as a party to the petition seeking direction from the FCC on legal Wi-Fi security measures. Our intent was to protect personal data in Wi-Fi hotspots for large conferences. We thought we were doing the right thing asking the FCC to provide guidance, but the FCC has indicated its opposition," reads a statement from Marriott.

"As we have said, we will not block Wi-Fi signals at any hotel we manage for any reason. And, as of January 15, we provide free Wi-Fi to all members of our Marriott Rewards program who book directly with us. We're doing everything we can to promote our customers' connectivity using mobile and other devices, and we're working with the industry to find security solutions that do not involve blocking our guests' use of their Wi-Fi devices."

Marriott's pledge of-sorts came a few months after it was hit with the aforementioned fine for blocking third-party hotspots at a convention in one of the company's Nashville hotels. In January, the hotel chain said that it would "no longer block guests from using their personal Wi-Fi devices at any of our managed hotels."

However, in that statement, Marriott did maintain that it would work with the FCC to see just what, if anything, it could do to "clarify appropriate security measures network operators can take to protect customer data."

Marriott's FCC petition met with strong opposition from tech heavyweights like Google, Microsoft, and the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association.