Register for the Energy Summit and Learn Where Multifamily Telecom is Headed

Multifamily telecom has become a complicated headache for many property managers. It’s easy to get confused by the tangled web of telephone operators, cable/satellite companies and internet service providers that are constantly changing their offering in vying for critical consumer dollars. More and more communications providers are shifting to wireless, targeting mobile devices and cloud-based technology with intense focus on the residential market. Ma Bell, supported by telephone lines that stretch from sea to shining sea, has taken a backseat. Wireless digital signals breeze past older infrastructure to deliver not just voice, but video, text and other communications through multiple devices. For apartment operators, providing reliable access to the internet is no longer an amenity – it’s a necessity, as important to today’s renter as the kitchen sink and reliable heating and cooling. Leasing agreements are sometimes lost in parking lots when prospects can’t get a good cellular signal. In fact, reliable cell reception has become the most necessary community amenity, according to the 2020 NMHC/Kingsley Apartment Resident Preference Report.    And you can’t talk about cellular connectivity or WiFi without talking about telecom, says Tim Haddon, Director of Strategic Business Services at PK Management. Telecommunication companies are slowly eliminating copper cables that have supplied phone and internet services for years. They are too expensive to manage compared to digital signals, which can move information faster. “There has been an increased focus for us on the telecom expense side just to get to the latest technology,” Haddon says. The industry’s movement from copper to digital connections presents a number of challenges for apartment operations. Fire, alarm and other access panels that currently run on copper will ultimately have to be transitioned to running over the internet. “At...