Many, if not most Multi-Tenant Unit (MTU) owners, and many homeowner's associations would like to offer high-speed Internet access as an amenity. High-speed Internet access has quickly become a checklist item for buyers or renters, and there are numerous anecdotal stories about sales or rentals lost because high-speed Internet access was not available.

Because of the complexities and expenses involved, such as purchase of equipment, installation, ongoing maintenance, and especially billing issues, most would prefer to outsource high-speed Internet service to a third party. One problem with outsourcing is that service providers have specific metrics for choosing which buildings they will provide service to - great if your building "makes the cut," bad if your building does not. Another problem is that the outsourcing approach has been called into question by a number of high-profile failures in the Internet Service Provider (ISP) industry of companies specifically targeting MTUs, resulting in the loss of Internet service when the service provider has gone out of business.

For the technically-savvy MTU owner or homeowner's association, an alternative to total outsourcing has emerged for providing high-speed Internet access to tenants-obtain a high-speed Internet connection (such as a T-1), install wireless access points, and outsource the billing to a third party so that the MTU owner or homeowner's association doesn't have to get involved in the contentious and ongoing issues of billing (See Note One).

The most typical method of providing Internet access in MTUs is a variant of Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology. A mini-DSLAM (Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer) is installed near the "telephone closet" of the building, and the DSL signals are carried over the tenant's internal telephone lines. The interconnection between the DSLAM and the internal telephone lines can be problematic, especially if the telephone wiring is more than a few years old (not designed or installed with data use in mind). To correct such problems, telephone wiring must be re-run. Note that what is described here is internal DSL, as opposed to DSL service provided by the telephone company in which the DSLAM is located in the telephone company's central office.

The "internal DSL" approach can be expensive. Labor expenses can be minimized by hooking up all tenants to the DSLAM, and then when a tenant requests service, the appropriate "port" is activated remotely and the customer premise equipment is shipped to them; theoretically no "truck roll" is required. With this approach, the DSLAM has to be sized to accommodate all tenant units, even knowing that some percentage of tenants won't want Internet service. Alternatively, a smaller DSLAM can be purchased, and each connection is done only upon a customer order; but this requires a "truck roll" for each customer order, increasing expense.

Consider, instead, the economics of installing a (comparatively) few centrally located Wireless Access Points in scenario very similar to that of a Public Wireless Access Point. For buildings with interior hallways, as few as one access point per hallway may be needed, or perhaps three or four per hallway, per floor. In building complexes, access points can be installed near roof peaks, on service buildings, etc. There is relatively little cabling and installation work required to install wireless access points, the vast majority of which is a one-time activity.

One system that may be of particular interest to MTU owners and homeowner's associations is Proxim's Harmony product line. Harmony consists of a controller unit, installed centrally, and a number of wireless access points. Harmony modules include the popular 802.11b (Wi-Fi) and the emerging 802.11a standard. Other harmony modules available include HomeRF and proprietary Proxim systems that use Frequency-Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) technology. The reason that FHSS should be considered is that it is generally more robust in the presence of other types of wireless. For example, 2.4 GHz cordless phones have been known to cause severe problems for 802.11b wireless networks.

With a wireless infrastructure in place, the "broadband install" experience for the tenant can be refreshingly easy, with no service call required. The tenant orders the service, the appropriate wireless device (PC Card for laptop, external device for desktop) is shipped directly to the tenant, and the tenant connects the wireless device to the computer. The installation can be as simple as plugging in a PC Card to a laptop or plugging in a Universal Serial Bus (USB) cable.

The Billing Problem

While use of wireless access points in MTUs largely solves the distribution issues of high-speed Internet access, billing is an ongoing issue. Billing for Internet access, which is little understood by MTU owners and homeowner's associations (especially the latter, consisting largely of volunteers).

hereUare Communications is a new company that offers third-party billing services that may be of interest to MTU owners and homeowner's associations. hereUare was founded on the idea that there would be tens of thousands of "standalone" Public Wireless Access Points (PWAPs) built by small entrepreneurs, and that each of them would have to develop their own billing systems. To solve this problem, hereUare offers Electronic Coinbox (EC), which act as a "traffic cop" between a high-speed Internet connection and wireless access points. In its simplest form, hereUare's Electronic Coinbox (EC) is a small snippet of code embedded in the software of a wireless access point.

To illustrate EC, imagine a small, independent coffee shop. A high-speed DSL line is connected directly to a wireless access point equipped with EC. When a customer turns on their wireless-equipped laptop, their browser's home page is redirected (by the EC code) to a customized hereUare sign-on screen. The customer pays for Internet access with a credit card, and the customer can then surf the Internet at high speed. At the end of the month, hereUare makes payment to the appropriate parties. Such a system enables small entrepreneurs deploying PWAPs to focus on growing its business rather than building back-end systems.

hereUare claims that eleven manufacturers of wireless access points have licensed EC. The Proxim Harmony system, mentioned above, has not licensed EC, but hereUare solves such problems by offering the "Electronic Coinbox Router" which embeds the EC technology into a small router, which is placed inline between the Internet connection and the wireless system, making it possible for wireless systems such as Proxim Harmony to make use of EC.

Conclusion
By themselves, use of wireless access points or remote billing services in MTUs isn't compelling. Combining the two technologies could enable MTU owners and homeowner's associations to offer high-speed Internet services to tenants and homeowners at relatively modest cost.

About the Author
Steve Stroh is an Independent Technology Writer based in the Redmond, Washington area. Since 1997 he has specialized in writing about Broadband Wireless Internet Access technology and Wireless Internet Access service providers. Steve's newsletter, Focus on Broadband Wireless Internet Access, began publication in June, 2001. Steve offers much free information about Broadband Wireless Internet Access on his web page at www.strohpub.com. The author welcomes questions or comments via email steve@strohpub.com.