In an effort to block hotel chains controlling Wi-Fi at their locations, Google and Microsoft have formed an unlikely alliance. The two tech giants, as well as other tech companies, are lobbying in opposition to a petition by the hotel industry, including large chains such as Hilton and Marriott, to the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) to stop customers from using personal Wi-Fi hotspots.

The rationality behind the hotel industry’s petition is not one related to profits, rather that private Wi-Fi hotspots might compromise security.  At the moment the law states that Wi-Fi cannot be controlled by companies. The American Hospitality & Lodging Association and Marriott International have asked the FCC that hotel operators should be able to manage their networks even it should interfere with a wireless device being used on properties. The group argued, “Wi-Fi network operators should be able to manage their networks in order to provide a secure and reliable Wi-Fi service to guests on their premises.” They added that private Wi-Fi hotspots could conceivably be used to target attacks on guests’ devices.

Microsoft and Google fought back saying that when a customer’s access to the internet is blocked it results in loss of various services. Microsoft further stated that Wi-Fi usage comes under the ‘unlicensed spectrum’, and that blocking personal Wi-Fi hotpots was not only a matter of security, but it would force customers to pay for a hotel’s own Wi-Fi when they have already paid a mobile operator for the service to set-up a personal hotspot. Marriott have found themselves on the losing side of this battle before when in October this year the company was ordered to pay $600,000 for blocking internet access at its Gaylord Opryland Hotel & Convention Center. At the time the hotel was charging its customers, attendees to a conference, exorbitant fees for its W-Fi.

The hotel group counter-argued that by blocking access to personal Wi-Fi it could protect its guests from, “rogue wireless hotspots that can cause degraded service, insidious cyber attacks and identity theft.” Hackers have of course in the past made luxury hotels and those that do business within them a target of attack, so the argument may seem quite weak in view of personal Wi-Fi hotspots and a chain’s own Wi-Fi both being vulnerable.

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