wifi blocking [was Re: Marriott wifi blocking]

Wed Oct 8 22:41:53 UTC 2014

On Oct 7, 2014, at 6:36 PM, valdis.kletnieks at vt.edu wrote:

> On Tue, 07 Oct 2014 20:10:44 -0500, Jimmy Hess said:
> 
>> The only way to legally block cell phone RF would likely be on behalf
>> of the licensee ----  In other words, possibly, persuade the cell
>> phone companies to allow this,   then  create an approved "special"
>> local cell tower  all their phones in the same building will by
>> default connect to  in preference to any other,  which will also  not
>> receive any calls or messages   or allow any to be sent.
> 
> I wonder how many customers the cell phone company will attract by doing that.
> 

BART experimented with something even safer than this (hosting provider microcells
in the underground bart stations on the condition that bart could cut them off when
they determined it was “in the interest of public safety”).

The first time BART exercised this “turn-off” capability, it drew quite a bit of fire from a
number of directions and complaints were lodged with the FCC. FCC doesn’t appear to
have made any ruling on the matter as yet (at least none that I could find), but the
wording of the various initial responses definitely didn’t seem to favor the idea of
allowing cellular service disruption at the whim of a local transit agency.

Owen