College and university chief information officers are unsure of what to make of the Federal Communications Commission’s hard line on blocking personal wireless hot spots and whether it applies to higher education. Nearly a year after the issue emerged, the agency still has yet to clarify.
The hotel chain Marriott International in October agreed to pay the F.C.C. a $600,000 penalty to settle a March 2013 case brought to the agency by an angry guest. While staying at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, the guest discovered the hotel was monitoring the wireless network and jamming signals produced by mobile hot spots. Such hot spots, also known as "mi-fi" devices, convert cellular data into a Wi-Fi signal that users can then connect laptops, tablets and other devices for internet access -- thereby avoiding having to pay for hotel Wi-Fi.
"Wi-Fi is an essential on-ramp to the Internet," the F.C.C. said in the order. "The growing use of technologies that unlawfully block consumers from creating their own Wi-Fi networks via their personal hot-spot devices unjustifiably prevents consumers from enjoying services they have paid for and stymies the convenience and innovation associated with Wi-Fi Internet access."
In an enforcement advisory published last week, the agency struck an even more confrontational tone.
"Willful or malicious interference with Wi-Fi hot spots is illegal," the advisory reads. "The Enforcement Bureau has seen a disturbing trend in which hotels and other commercial establishments block wireless consumers from using their own personal ∩╗┐Wi-Fi hot spots on the commercial establishment’s premises. As a result, the bureau is protecting consumers by aggressively investigating and acting against such unlawful intentional interference."
The agency based its decision on section 333 of the Communications Act of 1934, which states that "No person shall willfully or maliciously interfere with or cause interference to any radio communications" covered by the law.
In addition to reiterating that the use of jamming equipment is prohibited, the advisory also clarified the type of behavior the F.C.C. is looking to crack down on. "No hotel, convention center or other commercial establishment or the network operator providing services at such establishments may intentionally block or disrupt personal Wi-Fi hot spots on such premises, including as part of an effort to force consumers to purchase access to the property owner’s Wi-Fi network," it reads.
But the agency has yet to clarify if the rules extend beyond those sectors. The enforcement advisory has therefore sparked a renewed debate in C.I.O. discussion groups about what such guidelines might mean for higher education.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/02/06/do-fccs-rules-blocking-mobile-hot-spots-apply-higher-education