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"We fundamentally believe that wireless will become the next expected utility in a building, and when I say utility I mean just like centrally heating and cooled air, just like plumbing, just like electricity, where the tenants and the owners and the visitors will expect the building to allow for wireless services."

Ed Cantwell
President and CEO, InnerWireless

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The In-Building Wireless Evolution

 

Given the broader consumer market push to make nearly all aspects of life compatible with the increased desire to be mobile, it’s only natural that the ripple effects would reach places where people spend a good portion of their day: their offices.

Certainly, there are multi–faceted needs to be met, and many of them can now be addressed in ways never before thought possible due to back–end communication network improvements:

  • Tenants, now more than ever, are demanding WiFi in the buildings they lease to step up workforce productivity, which, in turn, drives higher profits
  • Building visitors and everyday employees want to work, communicate, or access data everywhere—in elevators, in the garage, in meeting rooms, or even sitting at their desks, using whatever device they choose
  • Commercial property managers need to get a handle on energy–consumption costs, better monitor security functions, and more effectively analyze cross–system data feeds
  • First responders could use wireless access to retrieve building blueprints, plan rescue and recovery strategies, evaluate risks, and determine appropriate communication links while in transit to the scene

Although compared to emerging markets, such as India, China, and Dubai, where building construction is booming and new property developers are more inclined to integrate “smart” technology from the getgo, the U.S. has lagged behind in adopting similar measures.

But, that’s starting to change. U.S. real estate firms and commercial property developers are quickly getting schooled on the advantages of having their buildings WiFi ready, and they are beginning to understand that in–building wireless network conversion can translate into big financial gains.