Condo Media - April 2012 - 16

ASKED & ANSWERED

Wireless Networks
Challenges Abound for Smaller Communities

Q A

QUESTION: The board of my 18unit condominium, on which I serve, is considering installing a wireless network, which is desired by many owners. Are there significant disadvantages we should consider, or potential problems we should anticipate? ANSWER: Your major problem is likely to be finding a company willing to install the system and service it. We broached this question with the owners of two companies who install wireless systems for community associations — Jonathan Rust at Brillian (formerly Anaptyx) and Bruce Reichlen at Make ‘M Wireless. Both agreed that making an 18-unit community wireless is usually too small to be financially attractive for owners and economically feasible for a vendor. Reichlen puts the minimum at around 35 units, but like Rust, he deals primarily with larger (50 units and up) properties. Both say they will make exceptions — Rust for a small property managed by a company with a portfolio that includes larger properties his company might serve; Reichlen for properties where “installing a network is difficult” and sharing becomes essential, or communities where owners are willing to segregate the costs, with some paying for minimum bandwidth while others pay significantly more for the larger amount of bandwidth they use. Most small communities like yours that want wireless systems will have to install and manage the networks on their own. But potential problems abound. The first will be cost. Most residential-grade equipment available to homeowners is “terrible,” Rust says.

Reichlen, somewhat more diplomatically, says the available household routers are “severely bandwidth limited and won’t have the horsepower” required to meet the demands of multiple users in a condominium community. So instead of paying $80 for a basic router, your community will have to pay $500 or more for commercialgrade equipment — if you can find a

wholesale vendor willing to sell it to you. You’ll also need someone, presumably a board member or an owner, willing and able to install the equipment, monitor and maintain it. Hold on to your hat here, and have a good supply of aspirin handy. The ongoing services that companies like Brillian and Make ‘M Wireless provide include monitoring usage to make sure that bandwidth “hogs,” who constantly stream videos and watch television on their computers, don’t squeeze out owners who do little more than periodically surf the Internet. Your board isn’t going to have the sophisticated (and expensive) equipment required to do that monitoring, and it isn’t likely to have the

stomach for confronting “hogs” and insisting that they either curtail their usage or pay more for it. Maintenance isn’t going to be much fun for the board member or owner responsible for it either. Most people don’t get terribly upset if the lights go out — even for several hours. But if the Internet goes down, even for a few minutes, Rust notes, “they go nuts!” Companies in this business are accustomed to dealing with the expectation that system failures (which occur with even the best systems) will be repaired immediately. Volunteers are less likely to view 3 a.m. calls from furious owners as just “part of the job.” Even if you find someone who does an excellent job willing to take on the maintenance responsibilities, what happens when that individual tires of the work or moves? The answer isn’t likely to be easy. And there is the constant strain of fielding complaints from owners, some of whom won’t be satisfied with any level of service the board manages to provide. “In my business, I’m always in front of owners or boards explaining why something is the way it is,” or isn’t what someone expected, Reichlen says. “It’s one thing for a third-party vendor to be doing that,” he adds, “but I’d hate to be an owner or a board member in that position.” Actually, Reichlen was an owner in that position several years ago, when he installed a wireless network in a small condominium community in which he owned a unit. He soon encountered all the problems he and Rust identified in responding to this question. After a few months, Reichlen says, “I shut it all down.” CM

CONDO MEDIA • APRIL 2012

Condo Media - April 2012

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