Smart City Networks, a Las Vegas company that provides Wi-Fi at convention centers across the country, will pay a $750,000 fine after the Federal Communications Commission found that it blocked personal hotspots at venues it serviced.
After a complaint last year, an FCC investigation found that the company had been blocking the personal mobile hotspots of convention attendees who opted out of Smart City’s $80 pay-per-day Wi-Fi plan. The settlement also requires the company to stop its Wi-Fi blocking. Smart City conducted Wi-Fi blocking at a number of convention centers, the FCC found, including venues in Cincinnati; Columbus, Ohio; Indianapolis; Orlando, Fla.; and Phoenix.
“All companies who seek to use technologies that block FCC-approved Wi-Fi connections are on notice that such practices are patently unlawful,” Travis LeBlanc, the chief of the FCC’s enforcement bureau, said in a statement Tuesday.
Mark Haley, the president of Smart City, said in a statement that the company acted in “good faith” and that it did not believe the technology violated FCC rules. Haley said Smart City’s activities resulted in the blockage of less than 1 percent of devices and that the company stopped using the technology when contacted by the FCC in October 2014.
“Our goal has always been to provide world-class services to our customers, and our company takes regulatory compliance extremely seriously. We are not gatekeepers to the Internet,” he said. “As recommended by the Department of Commerce and Department of Defense, we have occasionally used technologies made available by major equipment manufacturers to prevent wireless devices from significantly interfering with and disrupting the operations of neighboring exhibitors on our convention floors.”
Smart City did not contest the fine, with Haley saying a defense would be costly and a distraction. “We’ve chosen to work cooperatively with the FCC, and we are pleased to have resolved this matter,” he said.