Here at Geekabit we are great believers in free, reliable and straightforward wi-fi being offered in public places, such as bars, restaurants, hotels and coffee shops. It is universally expected, welcomed, and even our own research shows it does influence whether people choose to return to your business.

Which is why we were completely staggered to read that the hotel group Marriott were fined in the US in November last year for blocking wi-fi hotspots in one of its hotels, forcing business travellers to pay to access to Marriott’s own network. What makes it even more suspect, and outrageous, is that their wi-fi charges are normally $14.95 per day, but in this instance the jamming happened during a business conference, and the charges were considerably higher.

Marriott were fined $600,000 by America’s Federal Communication Commission (the FCC), who called the hotel chains actions ‘unacceptable’, and reinforced point that all jamming devices are illegal. Marriott released a statement claiming that they were simply trying to protect their customers from ‘rogue wireless hotspots’, and demanded that the FCC clearly define the law.

In an era where some customers find it tiresome to even have to ‘sign in’ to free wi-fi hotspots, we cannot imagine the impact this type of negative press would have on a UK based hotel chain, and will be keeping a close eye on the ‘Marriott affair’ in the weeks to come.