Microsoft joins forces with Google to stop hotels from blocking personal WiFi hotspots
Although they are not usually the best of friends, this time Microsoft has decided to team up with Google in pursuing a lawsuit which has important implications for users. This is a lawsuit before the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) of the United States where hotel companies, such as Marriot International, seek to obtain authorization to interfere with personal WiFi hotspotsthat your guests use from their smartphones .
Hotel companies argue with the FCC that they have the right to use equipment to manage their networks even if it would result in or cause interference with wireless devices used by guests on the operator&39;s property.This approach does not come out of thin air, but is made in connection with a lawsuit filed by a customer in March 2013, who accused Marriot of preventing him from connecting devices to the WiFi hotspot of your smartphone during your stay in a company convention hall."
Marriot, which has already been ordered to pay compensation in that lawsuit, alleges it simply sought to protect its customers from rogue WiFi hotspots that can degrade service, lead to cyberattacks and identity theft, but the truth is that it is very difficult not to think badly of this, when it is known that hotel companies charge substantial figures for accessing the WiFi service offered by themselves ."
Anyway, the application to the FCC to allow this type of practice is still ongoing, and that is why a group of technology companies, led by Google and mobile operators, and which now also includes Microsoft, are presenting their arguments to convince the regulatory body to reject Marriot International's request.
On this page you can review the complete comment made by Redmond before the FCC on this subject, but in broad lines the Nadella company argues that the deliberate blocking of authorized network connections violates the regulations of the Federal Commission, regardless of the reason for incurring such blocking, or whether the devices used to achieve it are authorized or not.
It is also pointed out that by agreeing with Marriot, in practice one would be no longer giving legal protection to Wi-Fi networks against acts of sabotage , and that this would be something that would go against the general interest (an argument that is also presented by the mobile operators, grouped in the CTIA).
We still don't know what the outcome of this case will be, but I think it's nice to see that competing companies without very good relations, like Microsoft and Google, are able to put these differences aside to fight in set against a position that would be totally detrimental to its users and security in the mobile industry.
Via | WMPowerUser > Re/code
