THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE: Hilton is the latest hotel suspected of blocking customers’ personal Wi-Fi.

It always seemed improbable that Marriott was the only one. Last year the hotel chain paid $600,000 to America’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to settle a complaint that it had blocked customers’ personal wireless modems and hotspots at “at least one” of its hotels, forcing customers to sign up for expensive in-house internet access instead. Now Hilton has found itself in hot water over the same charge. In August 2014, the FCC received a complaint from a customer alleging that the Hilton hotel in Anaheim, California, was also blocking visitors’ Wi-Fi hot spots unless they paid $500 to access the hotel’s own wireless service. The FCC says it has also received similar complaints involving other Hilton properties. . . .

Other than Marriott and Hilton, two other firms have been charged in connection with blocking guests’ Wi-Fi. In August 2015, Smart City Holdings, a telecoms firm, was fined $750,000 for blocking hotspots at several convention centres across America where it was providing internet access. The commission recently also said it intended to fine M.C. Dean, a technology firm, $718,000 “for apparent Wi-Fi blocking at the Baltimore Convention Centre”.

More power to the FCC’s elbow. After Marriott was caught, it lobbied for a change in the law that would allow it to interfere with its guests’ connections. Fortunately it backed down in the face of widespread incredulity.

Don’t mess with my personal wi-fi.