Company Faces Huge Fine For Blocking Convention Center WiFi Hotspots

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With all the fines the FCC has been handing out lately, you'd think companies would have learned by now that the courts don't like this crap.

Another company is learning about the fine points of Section 333 of the Communications Act, which prohibits willful interference with any licensed or authorized radio communications. This time, it’s the folks who provided the Baltimore Convention Center’s in-house WiFi service who were caught by the FCC trying to block individual WiFi hotspot users from going online. Meanwhile, Hilton is also being slapped with a proposed fine for its failure to comply with an investigation into its alleged hotspot blocking.
 
I deal with this every week at convention centers across the country. While their "rules" state you can not use, turn or or broadcast your wireless access points. Then they go an run their network cable right along the hi voltage power cables. Yeah that's code....

Because I like spending $1500 for the 1st IP address on a shared 10Mb connection (for 3 days). You can't even stream a youtube video at 720P or load our web site.

Lets not get started on how much I pay for electric or vacuuming for those same 3 days. ... got to love the tradeshow / convention business.
 
I knew that Convention center was shady, every time I tried to use a personal WiFi in there the connection was abysmal. I always figured it was due to the other folks using their WiFi hotspots as well. I'll be down there again this weekend, it will be interesting to see if the hotspots work better now, or if the problem still persists.
 
After reading a New York Times article about stores using their in house WiFi system to track which aisles you go down and if you are a repeat customer... It makes me wonder if stores are blocking WiFi too. Anytime I go into the local Target or Fred Meyer my WiFi hotspot service goes to zero and I have to connect to the store WiFi. I guess it could just be interference and I'm a paranoid old bastard.
 
After reading a New York Times article about stores using their in house WiFi system to track which aisles you go down and if you are a repeat customer... It makes me wonder if stores are blocking WiFi too. Anytime I go into the local Target or Fred Meyer my WiFi hotspot service goes to zero and I have to connect to the store WiFi. I guess it could just be interference and I'm a paranoid old bastard.

A Target big-box store could be large enough that there isn't a stable WiFi reaching your phone other than the store's own service. Try getting 3G or 4G deep inside some large, old office buildings and it's not happening unless some office has an open WiFi signal.
 
Because I like spending $1500 for the 1st IP address on a shared 10Mb connection (for 3 days). You can't even stream a youtube video at 720P or load our web site.

Lets not get started on how much I pay for electric or vacuuming for those same 3 days. ... got to love the tradeshow / convention business.

If you really want to see some price gouging, try to renting some equipment from a hotel/convention center. The company marketing department at the last minute decided they needed an additional 22" LCD display for a booth, and even they where shocked at the price. I told them it would be cheaper to just go down to the nearest place that sales LCD's and buy one and just throw it way afterwards. They liked my 2nd idea better: Just collect business cards and have a random drawing for the display at the end of the show.
 
Could someone educate me this: Why do people even bother blocking WiFi access to specific devices? Wouldn't it be better for actual business to not restrict WiFi access to anyone inside it?

(I live in a country where people largely sign up for unlimited data plans on their phones, so specific WiFi blocking puzzles me greatly)/
 
After reading a New York Times article about stores using their in house WiFi system to track which aisles you go down and if you are a repeat customer... It makes me wonder if stores are blocking WiFi too. Anytime I go into the local Target or Fred Meyer my WiFi hotspot service goes to zero and I have to connect to the store WiFi. I guess it could just be interference and I'm a paranoid old bastard.

Why are you using a wifi hotspot inside a Target store?
 
Could someone educate me this: Why do people even bother blocking WiFi access to specific devices? Wouldn't it be better for actual business to not restrict WiFi access to anyone inside it?

(I live in a country where people largely sign up for unlimited data plans on their phones, so specific WiFi blocking puzzles me greatly)/

They arent blocking wifi access, they are blocking wifi broadcast. That way you cant bring your own hotspot to power your laptop and equipment, instead you have to pay for access to theirs.
 
They arent blocking wifi access, they are blocking wifi broadcast. That way you cant bring your own hotspot to power your laptop and equipment, instead you have to pay for access to theirs.

How is that even possible, let alone legal? Is the block at a signal level or at a phone level?
 
I know someone well who used to work for a company that provided wifi/telecom to a convention center. This stuff is as much a fault of the city who owns the convention space as it is anything else because they take a HUGE percentage of the revenue. Playing devils advocate here, a few reasons why this happens:
- Network Infrustructure is expensive to maintain, especially when it has to constantly be custom tailored to the needs of an exhibitor
- Fulltime network engineers are on staff and are expensive to employ.
- Multiple wifi hotspots can be very disruptive to the stability of a network so blocking is necessary to provide good service to paying customers
- These providers are required to provide a lot of technical support to show atendees
- The facility owner (the city government usually) takes a huge percentage of the revenue
- Other non authorized providers will try and setup and sell access through cellular hotspots creating more network interference.
- The company/person who "owns" the show gets a piece of the revenue too... Yup so it's them fucking you over too, this revenue sharing goes for all 3rd party vendors (AV, digital signage, electricity).

No need to flame me here, just providing some insight as to why this stuff happens. I personally think it's a rip off and long overdue for reform.
 
... got to love the tradeshow / convention business.

No. You don't.

And I was one of the vendors previously affected by a previous by a vendor fined for doing the same thing in Columbus, OH and Indianapolis, IN.

Basically the entire convention back-end business is designed to siphon as much possible money out of the vendor as possible.

You want a real rip? Cartage.

Maybe for some small, foofy makeup convention or one of these gladhand no-product shows, cartage isn't a Big Deal.

But in the publishing industry? $70/lb? On hundreds of boxes of hardcover books?

And they wonder why my company's been bringing in more and more box trucks every year (as they supposedly HAVE to unload anything that comes in on a 53' truck. And they get pissy if we try to use electric pallet jacks like they do.
 
Could someone educate me this: Why do people even bother blocking WiFi access to specific devices? Wouldn't it be better for actual business to not restrict WiFi access to anyone inside it?

(I live in a country where people largely sign up for unlimited data plans on their phones, so specific WiFi blocking puzzles me greatly)/

Basically, convention center providers block wifi so they can sell you their own crappy service at insanely inflated prices. It's all about squeezing every last cent out of the vendor.

So the convention center THINKS its doing something good for patrons. In reality, the entire facility is just blasted off the net unless they're paying to get onto the preferred provider.

This year, in Columbus, just before the court decision that affected them happened, they were giving away FREE wifi to vendors. Probably hoping an after-the-fact token gesture would save their asses.
 
"We won't get caught" is the reason why this is a cash cow.

No different than the trolls that sue for piracy.
 
If you really want to see some price gouging, try to renting some equipment from a hotel/convention center. The company marketing department at the last minute decided they needed an additional 22" LCD display for a booth, and even they where shocked at the price. I told them it would be cheaper to just go down to the nearest place that sales LCD's and buy one and just throw it way afterwards. They liked my 2nd idea better: Just collect business cards and have a random drawing for the display at the end of the show.

Ah that explains why you always see that :D
 
If you really want to see some price gouging, try to renting some equipment from a hotel/convention center. The company marketing department at the last minute decided they needed an additional 22" LCD display for a booth, and even they where shocked at the price. I told them it would be cheaper to just go down to the nearest place that sales LCD's and buy one and just throw it way afterwards. They liked my 2nd idea better: Just collect business cards and have a random drawing for the display at the end of the show.

Yeah. Pretty much this.

Except with my company, I got to take a 50" plasma home with me at the end of the show.
I'm still obligated to bring it in again if we ever need it (only happened once in the last 8 years).

It helps that the conventions I work are "local" (I'm in Chicago and drive in, while everyone else flies). So I've sort of evolved into our head "schmuck in a truck" over time. The only thing I don't handle directly are our warehouse arrangements.
 
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