Articles tagged “wi-fi”

Quality of Wi-Fi is becoming as big a conversation as cost, especially for branded hotels catering to business travelers and the group market. We can't reiterate enough, though, that free is what consumers expect.

The app is nifty, but they had us at "free."

Marriott International, Hilton Worldwide and the U.S. hotel industry as a whole got a black eye from pursuing this FCC petition seeking clarification on Wi-Fi jamming. They bowed to intense pressure from the FCC and in some cases the hotels' loyal guests.

The FCC couldn't have more forcefully rejected the hotel industry's efforts to block Wi-Fi hotspots at meetings, conventions or anywhere else.

Outfitting aircraft with Wi-Fi is part of the battle. As Routehappy points out, the quality is still lacking with fewer than one percent of flights in the U.S. equipped with Wi-Fi that has the bandwidth to stream video.

The apparent abundance of free Wi-Fi at U.S. hotels may be enough to overshadow their sluggish Wi-Fi speeds, but not for long.

Marriott's customers resoundingly told the chain not to mess with their personal Wi-Fi devices and Marriott had little choice but to concede this battle. Other chains will likely feel the heat, as well. Still the war isn't over and the FCC will ultimately have much to say about where all of this is headed.

Gogo wants its Wi-Fi users to believe the notion that it is primarily monitoring customers' Internet usage to block improper video streaming to safeguard bandwidth and the browsing experience for everyone on the plane. Passengers who are aware of the controversy will have to decide if they trust Big Brother up in the air.

Fair or not, the modern traveler judges hotels by their Wi-Fi forwardness. The American hotel industry has everything to lose and nothing to win in this fight, even if it wins a ruling by FCC.