Gone are the days when property-wide WiFi access was an amenity. These days, it’s a near necessity. Whether they’re conducting Zoom meetings from dining room tables or responding to emails poolside, many residents today need reliable internet service. That’s why it’s vital that property owners know exactly what they’re getting when they choose a network provider.
We spoke with Mike Mancini, Xfinity Communities’ Senior Director of Sales Engineering, to learn how multifamily properties can meet the growing needs for property-wide connectivity.
Here are seven questions to ask to ensure residents are getting the very best service.
1. Why is a strong network foundation important for a multifamily property?
A strong network foundation provides your property with access to the most important and desirable amenities to residents, delivering high-speed data, video, voice, mobile, and additional software services to the entire community. This network infrastructure can build upon the value of your community and innovate as resident expectations evolve.
2. What is the importance of a reliable network?
Your network provider must strategically invest to support overall redundancy, reliability, and responsiveness, which is critical for your residents, many of whom continue to work from home. It’s also important to ensure that your property’s connectivity is always on, even if inclement weather were to disrupt power to the property.
3. What is the value of the provider owning, as opposed to leasing, the network?
When the provider owns the network, that means one entity is responsible for every aspect of the network. This ensures seamless end-to-end support for both property staff and residents, with the provider managing, maintaining, and controlling every element of the network. The property owner and staff can focus on supporting the community, while the provider can completely manage the network and connectivity experience.
4. How can a network contribute to a property’s operational success?
A network that is built for the future can expand to meet the evolving needs of residents—with increasing needs comes increased speeds. Your provider should proactively manage and monitor your property’s network, identifying connectivity trouble before it even occurs, maintaining a constant connection for your residents.
5. What’s the difference between managed and non-managed WiFi?
It’s primarily a structural difference. Managed WiFi provides the property owner with the ability to customize the service to its needs, with proactive monitoring and reporting, network configurations that best fit its audiences, and enhanced reporting capabilities. Unmanaged WiFi services are similar; however, they do not provide as many features. An unmanaged service can certainly still support residents’ connectivity needs, along with additional needs (i.e., IoT, security, etc). Both services can offer property-wide connectivity solutions.
6. What makes a network future-ready?
A future-ready network is one that is built to meet the expanding bandwidth needs of your residents and your property overall, with the capacity to implement enhanced IoT services, networked security systems, and more.
7. How can property owners capitalize on a network built into their properties?
A strong network foundation lays the groundwork for more services, including IoT applications and networked security systems, which will drive operational efficiencies and help to increase your property’s net operating income.
Comcast routinely enhances our network infrastructure to improve efficiency and increase upload and download speeds across our footprint, and our platform, Xfinity Communities Concierge, provides property owners and staff with the ability to seamlessly manage their Xfinity services property-wide. An easy-to-use communication channel, with Xfinity support, improves overall responsiveness to the property and its residents and maintains a strong relationship with the provider.
Learn how Xfinity Communities can provide your property’s residents easy access to powerful connectivity.
