Multifamily Musings: Open Access

Multifamily Musings will be my new weekly post – I’ll pose a question or a hot topic that we, as an industry, need to be thinking about. Hopefully we can initiate some dialogue about these important issues.

This week, I want to direct our attention to telecommunications and open access property networks. Now that almost every provider can deliver the triple play, does it still make sense for property owners to partner with an exclusive provider if they want to include bundled services in the rent? Should residents have the ability to choose their providers based on their personal preferences? Should the developer have a choice between these two scenarios based on each property’s specific needs?

Service providers are innovating at an unprecedented pace, but often leave multifamily properties as a distant second behind their single-family subscribers. Property owners need to understand that communications services and residents’ expectations have evolved – and will continue to change at an incredible pace. And it remains to be seen where the FCC will fall in all of this… Where do you stand?