Panelists Encourage Leveraging Several Technologies in MDU Broadband

Broadband experts and industry officials encouraged property owners and providers Wednesday to develop partnerships to meet the connectivity needs for residents in multidwelling units. Panelists during a Broadband Breakfast webinar cited challenges of deploying broadband in MDUs, including retrofitting older buildings, and encouraged stakeholders to consider various technological solutions.

There’s a “significant digital divide that results from the fact that fiber inside an MDU is difficult,” said Pierre Trudeau, Positron Access Solutions president-chief technology officer. “To some extent it actually increases the digital divide" among tenants, Trudeau said. There’s “a big need for broadband in general, but there’s especially a big need in MDUs,” said Sail Internet CEO Kevin Fisher, saying his company is "looking for a partnership” with property owners and developers.

Ensuring property owners are aware of the importance of connectivity for their tenants is “probably our most powerful thing that we could promote,” said World Cinema President Robert Grosz. One challenge in wiring MDUs is that “we still don’t have the funding streams” despite the “multiplicity of technology options that are fundable,” said Center for Technology Innovation Director Nicol Turner Lee.

There has been “a change in attitude” since the FCC adopted its rules on broadband in MDUs, Trudeau said, noting some cable operators expressed concerns that anyone could use fiber they may have been planning to wire into a building (see 2202150047). “That prompted more interest in finding ways to use the in-building wiring,” he said: “There’s a bit of knowledge sharing, training, and awareness that needs to be given to the community at large to really take advantage of the FCC ruling.”

There are two main components to commercially contracting broadband in MDUs, Grosz said. The first is the building of the network itself and “dictating who owns the network,” he said. Grosz said building owners should also own the networks “to the benefit of their occupants.” The second is determining who manages the networks, he said, noting security and privacy are “issues that have to be addressed” in any agreement: “You have to choose someone that knows what they’re doing.” Residents also play a role here, Turner Lee said, because consumers may not be willing to use a service if they can’t trust the network.

Another challenge is “getting property managers to understand that the whole development space is all about improved communities and ecosystems,” Turner Lee said. Bringing providers that serve MDUs into the conversation can help as well, she said: “Many of those folks are dictating to property owners things that they want to do within their building, and they also need to be part of this connectivity process.” Property owners “should have their interests aligned with the residents,” Grosz said, and “if they don’t, they’re not going to be a great property owner.”

MDUs “need to be a part of the universal service reform conversations” so property managers have the funding to connect their residents, Turner Lee said. Affordable housing residents “often have other problems than just the internet,” Fisher said, noting a managed Wi-Fi “may work better” to directly connect households to their devices. “The math works” with the FCC’s affordable connectivity program subsidy, he said, and “we have a great opportunity in multifamily affordable housing.”