Media Experiences 2 Go

With the exception of visible filth and the smell of cigarette smoke, nothing bothers me more about a hotel stay than having a flaky Internet connection. Clearly I’ll have to book at Marriott in the future.

Motorola announced a deal yesterday with Marriott to provide Motorola’s mT2a PowerBroadband system in Marriott-branded hotels. The system includes switching equipment and in-room wall plates (see above) for high-speed Internet connections and the capability to expand into VoIP, IPTV and dual-mode cell phone services.

Private broadband networks (PBNs) – not to mention the hotel market – are big business, so it’s a coup for Motorola to arrange this level of deal with Marriott. Per the press release, “PowerBroadband has recently been deployed in over 15,000 Marriott-branded guestrooms including rooms in prestigious hotels such as the Crystal Gateway Marriot in Arlington, VA… and the Orlando World Center Resort and Convention Center in Orlando, FL.”

I also talked with Motorola’s Greg Ioffe about the deal and he clued me in on certain novel considerations that apply in the hotel market I would never have thought of. Like the fact that a guest might call up the front desk to complain about a “broken” Internet connection when in reality the nearby modem has just been unplugged from the wall by the last resident of the room. Hence the patented wall plate.