The repeal of “net neutrality”, the rules that prevented internet providers from blocking, throttling, or prioritizing content, is now official. The Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of the rules took effect in June 2018.
The repeal of net neutrality most likely will create conditions that irritate consumers, notably the tech-savvy consumers that are your best tenants. The Aditum Internet Management System allows you to resell to your tenants the high-quality, commercial grade internet services they crave and that won’t be subject to the competitive whims of the cable companies. With Aditum, you will create a more desirable tenant experience.
Practically, what does net neutrality mean? Large consumer internet service providers, which are mostly cable companies, are now free to manage their delivery bandwidth as they see fit. They get to choose what content gets delivered unfettered and what content gets slowed-down or held back. Concurrently, and not necessarily related (but not necessarily unrelated, either), cable companies have been announcing ‘free’ increases to internet speeds for consumers. Customers who are also cable service customers, but not internet-only customers, may receive the speed upgrades at no additional charge. Some might say this is not ‘throttling’ per se, but simply incentivizing better customers who buy more services from the company.
This is likely just the first step in creating more of a bundle-driven approach internet service by the cable companies. As we pointed out in a blog post late last year, there are precedents in Europe for internet service ‘add-ons’ to allow specific social media applications through (to unblock them). Cable companies are very comfortable with building bundles of channels and selling them as service tiers. Extend that thinking to social media ( e.g. Twitter & Instagram, $5/mo., Facebook & Twitter, $7/mo., Facebook, Twitter & Instagram, $9/mo.) or websites (Amazon, $3/mo., New York Times, $5/mo., etc.) and you can see where this could go.
To understand what consumers want, particularly the tech-savvy consumers that are your best tenants, look no further than ‘cord-cutting’. When they grew tired of expensive bundles of cable channels, arbitrarily filled with uninteresting or mindless content, tech-savvy consumers moved to streaming exactly the content they wanted through services such as Sling, Netflix, and others. The cable channels, and the associated revenues, were bypassed. Under net neutrality there was nothing they could do to slow down those streaming services in favor of their own content.
While your business is filling tenant spaces, maximizing revenue for your buildings, and collecting rents, the impact of net neutrality is important. You can create a competitive advantage and entice the best tenants to your properties with a distinct service offering of high-quality, commercial grade internet services, resold through the Aditum Internet Management System. These internet services are much better quality than cable company consumer grade, and not subject to cable company blocking, throttling, or prioritizing content.
The Aditum system allows you to create the exact service plans your tenants desire, making it perfect for mixed use, commercial/residential buildings. Your most tech-savvy tenants will be thrilled. Since you are reselling the internet service with Aditum, each month you are collecting a margin on every tenant.
We’ve made it easy to implement, install, and run – so you can focus on filling those buildings. Contact us today to learn more.
