united-states fcc
Can a university legally enforce a policy preventing students from creating their own wireless networks?
<p><strong>I attend a university in the United States where the school policy states that &quot;<em>Students are not permitted to setup or use their own wireless networks.</em>&quot; This includes personal hotspots that come with one's phone plan, bluetooth connections, etc. I had some concerns about this policy and wrote to the administration. In the end they agreed to meet with me and said they would work with me to change the outdated policy. So for me, it looks like all good news. That being said, I'm aware that there are many other universities out there with this same policy, and that have refused to change it. Can these universities legally enforce this policy? I'm leaning towards thinking that they would not be able to (I'll link some of the sources that gave me this impression below), but I'm curious to hear what others have to say, as this is starting to become a very prevalent issue, and I wouldn't be surprised to see cases in court in the coming years.</strong></p>
<p>Sources/Arguments:</p>
<p>One of the reasons for this policy provided by the school was that other wireless networks could cause unwanted interference with their network. Ignoring the fact that almost all modern devices (and all wireless devices using the 5Ghz spectrum, per regulation) automatically detect which wireless channels are being used and will select unused ones, it would seem that per <a href="https://jolt.richmond.edu/jolt-archive/v15i2/article5.pdf" rel="noreferrer">FCC regulations</a>, the university must</p>
<blockquote>
<p>&quot;...accept any interference received, including interference that may
cause undesired operation.&quot;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Note: the type of interference - if any - caused by students self-hosting their own wireless networks would not come near to the FCC's &quot;harmful interference&quot; definition.</p>
<p>Also check out the §15.5(b) explanation in <a href="https://www.networkworld.com/article/2881540/how-not-to-get-slammed-by-the-fcc-for-wi-fi-blocking.html" rel="noreferrer">this article</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>&quot;For unlicensed devices, which include Wi-Fi, the FCC has consistently
interpreted this to mean that interference incidental to the operation
of a properly functioning device is allowable. Someone using a
properly operating hotspot in your vicinity has as much a right to
operate their device as you do operating your device, even if the two
systems cause problems with each other.&quot;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It would <a href="https://jolt.richmond.edu/jolt-archive/v15i2/article5.pdf" rel="noreferrer">also appear</a> that the university wouldn't have any more right towards use of the wireless spectrum than any student would, as consistently the FCC has shown that property rights have no relation to usage rights of the wireless spectrum.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>&quot;First, under the general requirements for operation, the consumer
does not receive or possess a 'vested or recognizable right to
continued use of any given frequency' on the basis of device
certification or  use. Being the owner of the device does not
guarantee the consumer exclusive,   continuous, or ongoing usage of
that wireless device at a specific frequency. Although a consumer may
operate an unlicensed wireless device for weeks, months, or years,
this operation does not confer a first-in-time 'vested' right to
continue to operate the device if another licensed or unlicensed
device begins to operate at that frequency.&quot;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Finally, it <a href="https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=a17157960c63165990ed0feac5864453&amp;node=se47.1.15_15&amp;rgn=div8" rel="noreferrer">looks like</a> the only authority with the right to ask someone to stop a wireless transmission is the FCC itself:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>&quot;The operator of a radio frequency device shall be required to cease
operating the device upon notification by a Commission representative
that the device is causing harmful interference.&quot;</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Update:</strong>
After seeing <a href="https://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/53578065#53578065">this comment</a> from gparyani, I got curious and searched through all of the official university policies I'd agreed to. As it turns out, despite the warning being plastered all over the university's website, and the website itself saying that it's the university's policy not to allow students to create their own wireless networks... it's not actually in any of the hundreds of pages of policy documents that I agreed to abide by upon enrolling here... I just figured I'd highlight this point for any future visitors to this post.</p>
<p><strong>Update #2</strong>
I have accepted <a href="https://law.stackexchange.com/a/49536">this answer</a> as it seems to be correct, and after waiting a few months and prompting the authors of some of the other compelling answers to respond, there has yet to be a counter argument. If, however, a strong counter argument is made, or you think I’ve selected the wrong answer, let me know with a valid explanation, and I’ll change my selection. It should also be noted that this answer was provided long after the hype died down on this question, hence why it doesn’t have nearly as many views and votes.</p>

<h2>Yes they can</h2>

<p>You are approaching this from the wrong direction. Their right to enforce what you can and can't do doesn't come from radio-spectrum law; it comes from property and contract law.</p>

<p>You are on their property subject to a license that they give you to be there. One of the terms of that license is that you won't set up or operate a wireless network. No doubt there are other things you are not permitted to do; for example, you may not be able to sell goods and services. If you breach the terms of the license then you are trespassing and they are within their rights to have you removed.</p>

<p>In addition, if you are a student (or staff), this is probably one of the terms of your contract with the university. If you breach it, they can terminate your candidature (employment).</p>

<p>Contracts can impose obligations on you that goes beyond what the law obliges you to do. Indeed, there is no contract if it only requires what is already required.</p>

<p>They aren't allowed to <em>jam</em> your networks, per <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/03/travel/marriott-fcc-wi-fi-fine/index.html" rel="noreferrer">this Mariott case</a>.</p>

<p>However, that doesn't prevent them from enforcing their contract terms and various "acceptable use policies" based on your relationship with the university. They'll be able to kick you out of the course if you don't follow the rules.</p>

<p>I am not a lawyer, but I do run the IT department at a small college where this issue has come up a few times.</p>
<p>Our reading of the regulations (other institutions may read them differently) is I am not legally permitted to interfere with your wireless router or the rf spectrum it's using. We don't own or have any exclusive rights over the spectrum on our campus. Public spectrum is public.</p>
<p>Additionally, aspects of the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2014/10/03/travel/marriott-fcc-wi-fi-fine/index.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Marriott case from 2014</a> indicate to us the FCC believes I'm not even allowed to prohibit this via our student residence contracts, or if I do I can't really enforce it. It's not fully litigated and separate from the rulings of the case, but in the United States the FCC is claiming exclusive ability to regulate this, and when they say &quot;public&quot;, they really mean it. Again, other institutions may read this differently.</p>
<p>However, I am permitted to do two things.</p>
<p>First, I am permitted to include language in our residence contracts which prohibits you from extending the networks we own and operate... that is, we can and do have written policy requiring you not use the internet access provided to your room to run your own router or repeater.</p>
<p>Second, I can enforce this by disabling the network port, phone line, or coax line in your room needed to provide initial uplink service to your router. I can also block your router or repeater from connecting to our wifi to get initial service that way. In other words, I can't stop your router from functioning as the manufacturer intended, but I can starve it's ability to make an uplink connection via resources owned by the institution (LTE/5g hotspots can still work).</p>
<hr />
<p>Separate from the legal issues, I promise you we really are serious when we tell you these devices mess with everyone else and cause problems on our networks.</p>
<p>University residences tend to be very densely populated. We don't pack students in quite as much as a hotel might in terms of number of people per square foot, but it's close, and a much higher percentage of college students are heavy wireless users. It's not just your phone or laptop using the spectrum for internet. Game controllers, wireless mice, bluetooth speakers/earbuds, and more all share that same resource.</p>
<p>Our networks tend to be tuned to take best advantage of the available spectrum, where we make choices to support more simultaneous people rather than go for the highest individual speeds. For example, in the 2.4Ghz band we might only use 20mhz channels instead of 40mhz. This limits the max speed of each connection, but means we can support many more simultaneous devices. Another thing we might do in that band is limit to channels 1,6,and 11, because the channels overlap somewhat and only using those three avoids interference. Also, we'll tend to have more APs (&quot;routers&quot;), each one running at a much lower power level, so there's less geographical overlap and each AP doesn't have as many end-user devices. A large campus may have thousands of APs (routers).</p>
<p>When you start using your off-the-shelf router, it will do a scan and find, say, channel 4 seems unused. Then it will default to a 40mhz channel width with the extension on channel 8. So now, because the channels overlap, it's in contention with our devices across the <em>entire 2.4Ghz spectrum</em>. Additionally, instead of the 11db or 17db our APs might be using, to create smaller cells with fewer devices per cell, this will probably broadcast at the full permitted 29db, meaning this contention takes place over a much larger area.</p>
<p>All of those settings absolutely make sense in a home network, and are therefore the defaults in most off-the-shelf routers, but they are also exactly the wrong way to do things for college residence, and will lead to worse experiences for everyone.</p>
<p>Wireless contention issues aside, we've also had several cases where an incorrectly-connected router tried to take over DHCP duties in a building/vlan, thereby breaking internet access for many others until the culprit was tracked down and unplugged.</p>
<p>In short, internet access is not magic. It's based on real physical rules. These rules don't often matter much at home, but we are pushing the limits of what's possible when we come to these shared environments, such as a college residence. Bringing your own router into this situation is being a bad neighbor to your peers.</p>
<hr />
<p>Going ever further afield of the initial legal question, I have a separate complaint about FCC policy in this area. Unlike public and unlicensed wifi spectrum, cell service spectrum is exclusively licensed. We see carriers like Verizon and AT&amp;T are able to do amazing things with relatively small amounts of spectrum. The reason they are able to do this is they <strong>know</strong> they are the only thing using that spectrum. They can count on every device on those bands playing by the rules they set, with no signal interference.</p>
<p>But those are the only two modes the FCC seems to understand: fully-licensed and exclusive spectrum, or fully unlicensed and open spectrum. Given the importance of modern wifi, I'd <strong>really</strong> like to see a new category: unlicensed for a specific purpose.</p>
<p>The idea is to partner with the IEEE 802.11 working group to give over some spectrum (maybe something in the 3Ghz range) as <em>unlicensed</em>: <strong>anyone</strong> can use it, as long as the device follows the specific designated protocol to be designed by the 802.11 working group. This would be a <em>new protocol</em> which operates very similar to WiFi today, but now we can also assume certain kinds of interference just won't happen. We get to assume cooperation-by-default, instead of the opposite. Suddenly the wifi no longer needs to contend with noise from game controllers, bluetooth, mice, etc, and this should open up a whole new level of potential performance for basic internet.</p>

<p>The only avenue for a legally-enforceable restriction against running your own network on campus would be via the contract arising from enrollment at the school. If this is a government-operated school, this is not a long-run option (though it may take a lawsuit to sort that out). A private school has the right to impose all sorts of arbitrary restrictions on their customers, but government action (policies created by state schools) can't arbitrarily restrict the freedom of action of those subject to its jurisdiction. If this is a state school, they may try to argue that such networks interefere with the operation of the campus network, but that is a factually dubiuous claim. Still, if they could show that running a hot spot interferes with the school's operation, then they might prevail under an intermediate-scrutiny review.</p>

<h1>No They Can't</h1>
<p>FCC Public Notice <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/document/commission-staff-clarifies-fccs-role-regarding-radio-interference-matters" rel="noreferrer">DA 04-1844</a> on &quot;Rules Governing Customer Antennas And Other Unlicensed Equipment&quot; addresses colleges and universities, and sounds to me like it is specifically about this issue.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The  FCC’s  Office  of  Engineering  and  Technology  (OET)  releases  this  Public  Notice  in  response  to  questions  from  the  public  regarding  the  use  of  unlicensed  devices,  including  customer  antennas,  especially  in  the  context  of  a  variety  of  multi-tenant  environments  (MTEs). MT environments encompass venues such as hotels, conference and convention centers, airports, and  <strong>colleges  and  universities</strong>. In  particular,  questions  have  arisen  about  the  role  of  the  Commission  in  addressing  and  resolving  radio  interference  (“RFI”)  issues  in  these  settings.  In  addition,  questions  have  arisen  about  the  ability  of  homeowners  associations,  landlords,  and  other third parties to prohibit customer use of small antennas when consumers install and operate them as unlicensed devices.</p>
<p>In  response,  we  reaffirm  that,  under  the  Communications  Act,  the  FCC  has  exclusive  authority  to  resolve  matters  involving  radio  frequency  interference  [RFI]  when  unlicensed  devices are being used, regardless of venue.  We also affirm that the rights that consumers have under  our  rules  to  install  and  operate  customer  antennas  one  meter  or  less  in  size  apply  to  the  operation  of  unlicensed  equipment,  <strong>such  as  Wi-Fi  access  points</strong>  -  just  as  they  do  to  the  use  of  equipment in connection with fixed wireless services licensed by the FCC.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>To address Dale's point, further down it forbids the use of property law to regulate these issues:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We  also  affirm  that  the  consumer  protections  for  the  installation  and  use  of  consumer  antennas  under  the  FCC’s  Over-the-Air  Reception Devices (OTARD) rules apply to unlicensed devices. By  their  terms,  these  rules  apply,  among  other  things,  to  customer  antennas  -  one-meter  or  less  in  size  -  used  for  transmitting  and/or  receiving  any  fixed  wireless  signal  of  any  commercial  nonbroadcast  communications  signal  that  is  transmitted  via  wireless  technology  to  or  from  a  customer  location. <strong>The  rules  prohibit  homeowner  associations,  landlords,  state  and  local  governments,  or  any  other  third  parties  from  placing  restrictions  that  impair  a  customer  antenna  user's  ability  to  install,  maintain,  or  use  such  customer  antennas  transmitting  and/or  receiving  commercial  nonbroadcast  communications  signals  when  the  antenna  is  located  &quot;on  property within the exclusive use or control&quot; of the user where the user has a direct or indirect ownership  or  leasehold  interest  in  the  property</strong>,  except  under  certain  exceptions  for  safety  and  historic preservation.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>"Ignoring the fact that almost all modern devices (and all wireless devices using the 5Ghz spectrum, per regulation) automatically detect which wireless channels are being used and will select unused ones..."</p>

<p>Actually, if they're providing <em>good</em> coverage in halls, it's likely that they're saturating the channels, and therefore any network you put up could easily interfere with theirs. Premium hotel brands typically have a policy to put one Access Point per room, but the side effect is that an AP density this high suffers from both inter- and intra-channel interference; they manage this by dropping the RF power.</p>

<p>Source: Experience in hospitality WiFi installations. </p>
