Tech Tips

Is Your Property Ready for the 5G Epidemic?

With contributions from Rich George and JD Wright

Managed Wi-Fi is the new “fourth utility.” Running water, gas, and electricity – in the past, these were what one needed to survive in their new apartment. Cable television, phone service (land or mobile), and internet were the “nice to have” utilities. Now Wi-Fi and mobile phone service are king, and for most American households they are not optional. This is the reason multifamily operators must pay attention to the “5G Epidemic.” We cannot “sit this one out.”

We have all experienced “dead spots.” We encounter “dead spots” more frequently in large buildings with a lot of concrete and metal. These are the places where cell signals cannot reach because the building itself is too big and thick. We can all agree that “dead spots” are annoying and they impact our behaviors and habits.

This problem is difficult now, but with the oncoming 5G networks, this problem is about to become an epidemic. The 5G signal or network behaves differently than the original 3G, 4G, or LTE signals. This new signal, as amazing as it is regarding speed and latency, cannot penetrate an insulated piece of glass, much less block, brick, metal, wood, insulation, or other common 20thcentury building materials.

Traditionally, the nation’s wireless carriers have focused on outdoor, large geographic coverage, primarily by building big cell towers that can blast signals across a neighborhood or small city. That approach has worked with the former iterations of wireless signals. This approach does not work with the new 5G signal. A new approach to the way networks are built and interact is now required.

This 5G epidemic creates a whole new challenge for real estate owners and management professionals. Most people are sitting back and waiting for the mobile carriers and telecom companies to “build” the 5G network, but it has become abundantly clear they will be building their networks up to the outside skin of our buildings and no farther.

“In-building wireless (IBW)” is the new frontier for wireless. It will provide coverage where the carriers will not. Most building owners are not aware of the overwhelming need or demand to maintain viability with the needs of their tenants. This request will manifest the strongest in the multifamily residential space.

Landlords to the rescue? In the case of multifamily, whether it is a low-rise, midrise, high-rise, or garden construction, there is simply no way for a 5G signal to get through all the steel, concrete, and other building materials. Yet wireless customers still expect their phone to work – no matter where they are. Many experts in the multifamily technology space are thinking that at first, multifamily customers will blame the carrier.

Swiftly though, it will shift to the building owner/ manager. As this starts to happen, owners will have to find a solution. Smart owners who have already identified a solution before the customer demands it will be able to leverage this and monetize it before their competitors become extinct, or follow.

Wireless operators are expected to spend roughly $30 billion on their networks this year alone. At a certain point, it’s simply not worth it for a network operator to install expensive IBW’s in an apartment building just to connect apartment residents for a few hours a week. Should those apartment residents just get used to the “no signal” warning on their phones? Maybe not.

To bring cell reception back and prepare their buildings for the 5G revolution, owners need an in-building wireless solution such as a Managed Wi-Fi System: a tree of fiber and nodes that spread wireless internet and the 5G signal throughout a building and provides highperforming wireless throughout a multifamily asset.

Building owners and managers are beginning to see that managed Wi-Fi is a “fourth utility” along with water, electricity, and heating fuels. The argument, at least for those who are paying attention in the multifamily space, is reliable Wi-Fi connections and 5G repeaters will make a building more valuable. The harsh reality is that a building owner must open their checkbook to pay for it. “It’s flipping the idea of Wi-Fi and 5G on its head,” said JD Wright, the CEO of the network installation company Universal Media Group (UMG).

Indeed, UMG’s Wright said that one prominent and forward-thinking building owner in Tennessee engaged them to retrofit managed Wi-Fi connections, 5G repeaters, streaming video services, and smart technology throughout a 312-unit apartment community located in suburban Nashville that was built in the early nineties. After 18 months, this project is now seeing a return-on-investment that exceeds 30 percent.

“A building owner doesn’t put flowers at their monument sign unless they understand how those flowers make them money,” said Rich George, the multifamily NOI Coach. George said the company created a return-oninvestment model, specifically for the retrofit multifamily market, that can help real estate companies calculate the value that can be added to their properties if they pay to install a managed Wi-Fi and 5G in-building network themselves.

George also stated, “This foundation allows for multiple revenue-plays from smart devices to video streaming opportunities, and the ultimate play of becoming that ‘fourth utility.’”

This managed Wi-Fi backbone allows for deploying extensive in-building systems that can aid in cost savings to revenue plays. “It enables so many opportunities,” George says.

Residential multifamily management concerns, challenges, and…5G. Although many in the multifamily management industry hope building owners will take on the in-building network challenge – and will spend the capital in cases where wireless network operators won’t – some aren’t convinced it will happen until the market demands it and assets start to experience economic and/or functional obsolescence.

Meanwhile, a building’s competition could have implemented an in-building wireless network, seen an increase in resident acquisition and retention, and significantly raised rents thanks to the added value of the in-building system. Providing this “fourth utility” has tremendous value in rents and thus in net operating income (NOI) and overall value.

George says, “It’s a giant leap for building owners to invest in managed Wi-Fi and 5G technology. I hope the forward-thinking owners and managers out there understand that we cannot sit out this technology trend, as we have in the past. This time it is different, and we must make sure we don’t miss the bus. Smart owners will find a tremendous return if they are the early adopters.”

“Even if building owners do decide to install a wireless system, they can’t expect to engage in a ‘one and done’ project”, said UMG’s Wright. “Unlike other building systems, wireless and technology systems need to be managed, maintained, and engineered for tomorrow. To accomplish this, we have to lay the strongest foundation at the beginning to build upon.”

“I am convinced that as 5G becomes the ‘new norm,’ the market will become flush with consumer solutions. These will be everything from antennas you set outside your window to repeaters placed on windows,” George says. “For those of us who lived through the onslaught of the small dish antenna, this will be no different. If we do not provide a convenient, viable solution, we will have our residents adorning our buildings with hideous 5G retrofit solutions.”

As the wireless industry rushes toward 5G network technology, building owners and managers may see the move to 5G as an opportunity to “own” this fourth utility. In contrast, the industry’s latest G could actually serve to dampen the in-building push if real estate companies see it as another reason to withhold a major investment into wireless, for fear that it will quickly become obsolete.

Either way, it’s clear that wireless carriers are banking on the fact that building owners and wireless customers will take on the cost of network build-outs, from the exterior

walls to the interiors of buildings. As an industry, we have to ask ourselves: will we step up to this challenge or will we let ourselves become extinct?

Once considered a luxury, and now a “fourth utility,” the best wireless connectivity is as central to your business plan as providing habitable conditions. Getting your asset 5G ready will be a sound decision and will ensure a property’s long-term value. It is time to start to digitally transform your portfolio. Smart profits will not be achieved by dumb apartments.

2020 CAMT Education Scholarship Awarded

Congratulations Ricardo (Ricky) Lopez with Freeman Webb! Ricky was quite surprised when he learned he was chosen to receive the GNAA 2020 CAMT Scholarship. Ricky is passionate about his career choice, he said it started when he was a little boy and his father, a maintenance man, would take him to work with him. At age 16, he started working as his father’s assistant and developed the skills needed to be successful. Ricky said, “out of my seven brothers, I was the only one who followed in our father’s footsteps, and it has given me and my family a good life.”

GNAA offers Education Scholarships for CAM, CAMT, CPO, and NALP. Applications can be found at www.gnaa.org/page/Scholarships.

Ricardo (Ricky) Lopez with Freeman Webb at Kelly Miller Smith Tower, is being congratulated by Paul Rhodes, NAA CAMT Instructor, for winning the GNAA 2020 CAMT Scholarship.

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