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Office connectivity is shifting from carriers to building owners
With wireless carriers cutting back on in-building funding, tenants are increasingly facing DAS installation costs or capital projects when coverage proves inadequate.
Commercial Observer says the traditional arrangement in office buildings, where tenants bought Wi-Fi and wireless carriers delivered and often funded cellular infrastructure, has ended.
As carriers have pulled back from financing in-building cellular systems, responsibility for installing and maintaining distributed antenna system infrastructure is increasingly falling to building owners, who are then looking to recover the costs from tenants, turning connectivity into a lease issue.
The outlet reports that tenants can be caught by poor coverage discovered after employees move in, when fixes become capital projects with unclear responsibility. Others may see substantial distributed antenna system installations treated as operating expenses under broad lease language.
Commercial Observer recommends that tenants and brokers treat connectivity like other building systems such as HVAC or elevators, starting by requesting current carrier-by-carrier coverage test data with the measurement method. It also advises clarifying who owns and maintains any existing DAS or neutral host setup, how inadequate coverage would be paid for and recovered, whether the building has an exclusive arrangement with a connectivity provider or riser manager, and handling emergency responder radio coverage as a fire and life safety code obligation rather than a commercial amenity.