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FCC Fines Another Large Firm For Blocking WiFi

AmiMoJo writes: 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, M.C. Dean, who provided the Baltimore Convention Center's in-house WiFi service, were caught by the FCC sending deauthentication frames to prevent hotspot users maintaining a connection. The complainant alleged that M.C. Dean's actions were identical to those that had earned Marriott a $600,000 fine only weeks earlier.

5 of 138 comments (clear)

  1. FCC Fines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The fine was fined - by the Department of Redundancy Department.

  2. Nice headline writing! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    FCC Fines Ralph Fiennes, Larry Fine, and Richard Feynman a Mighty Fine Fine for Blocking WiFine

  3. I'm glad but only $718,000 is peanuts by DanDs22 · · Score: 4, Informative

    They blocked wifi from 2012 to 2014, and the estimated sales of this company were over $700 million in 2013. M.C. Dean charged $795 to $1,095 for access to the Wi-Fi it provided depending on whether the services were ordered in advance or on-site..

  4. Re:"Fines another large fine"? by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 4, Funny

    I appreciate Slashdot has standards, and one is "If you didn't preview, nuh nuh, even though we make it easy to submit without previewing and don't do what every other website does", but, really, the editors should change the headline.

    OK, when did we get standards?
    And how come there has not been a single moo on this page yet?
    Did I wake up in an alternate universe?

    --
    You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
  5. Will "wifi" ever get expanded spectrum? by swb · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It seems like much of the problem originates from the limited spectrum available to wifi, which makes it hard/expensive to cover large, dense spaces, especially if people are bringing in their own network devices.

    This leads to "rogue ap suppression" which I'd wager is motivated as much by network operators tired of getting screamed at because "the conference room wifi sucks" and thinking that suppressing hotspots will improve it as much as it is by greedy operators who believe that crushing hotspots will improve profits.