Several months ago, we wrote an initial article about the necessity of building owners and managers to provide broadband access for tenants. While there is no dispute that providing high-speed Internet access for certain businesses will become a necessity in the future years, several companies have indicated that slower technologies, such as DSL and other similar transport medias, satisfy their current needs. Whatever the technology choice, the telecom market has changed dramatically. Whether more nimble value-added services telcos will be able to take advantage of inexpensive bandwidth prices from these carriers remains uncertain. Building owners and managers should, in any event, heed certain points.
Due diligence is now at a premium.
Potential mergers or bankruptcies can cause significant interruption in building services, which may not be necessarily assumed by a healthy available competitor in a timely fashion. Contingency plans for telco service changes or interruptions are advisable. The FCC prohibits exclusives. Not only is this important for tenant choice and pricing, but now this issue is also significant in the event of a potential liquidation of a provisioning telco provider. Multiple carriers per building makes transitioning tenants to another carrier much simpler.