 The Phoenix Plaza announced today that the 850,000 square foot two building campus will be the second project in Phoenix and be one of the few in the US to offer bandwidth as a utility and wireless wi-fi as an amenity to its tenants. A world class team including Wireless Facilities, Corning, Cisco, Intel and Bandwidth Now and have been working on this "paradigm changing" concept.
"Our concept is really simple ...provide tenants bandwidth as the 4th utility and Wi-Fi (wireless internet) as an amenity," says Matt Spathas, CEO and Co-Founder of Bandwidth Now, the next gen utility company which together with Wireless Facilities Inc. designs, constructs and manages the BON. By installing a common, agnostic network, called a ?Building Optical Network? (BON) which is paid for and owned by the building owner, Phoenix Plaza can deliver up to gigabit network speeds at a fraction of the cost. Additionally, and as important, Wi-Fi will be provided throughout the entire building as an amenity," adds Spathas.
Phoenix Plaza will be one of a handful of office buildings in the US to obtain the Intel? Centrino? mobile technology certification. Centrino is Intel's new technology designed specifically for mobile computing with integrated wireless LAN capability and breakthrough mobile performance.
The Phoenix Plaza will also enable a host of other new leading edge services to its tenants including video conferencing to the PC, Managed IP Telephony in an effort to increase tenant productivity and drive down tenant IT costs. ?We are moving from simply leasing space to our tenants to working to creating workplaces for the 21st Century?, said Roland Siegl of GE Asset Management, which acquired the buildings in the 4th quarter of 2004.
The Phoenix Plaza landlord has invested in the infrastructure to better serve its tenants, says Darlene Casella, Real Estate Manager for CB Richard Ellis Asset Services. "This is really no different than the move from kerosene to electricity or stairs to elevators. Owners did not rely on third parties to pay for, install, and own the electrical network or the elevator system. Optical wires and switches should be treated like electrical wires and the transformer?owned by the building, managed by a third party for the benefit of our tenants. Bandwidth is purchased in bulk off the bandwidth grid in the same manner power is purchased off the power grid" said Spathas.
Tenants of Phoenix Plaza will enjoy "wired" plug and play connectivity to the Internet which will burst up to 10 Mbps for only $250 per month. This is approximately 6 times faster and 1/5th the cost of a typical T-1 (1.5 Mbps) connection. Additionally, the Phoenix Plaza buildings will be 100% Wi-Fi (wireless) enabled. Wi-Fi use will be offered as an amenity (no charge) to Phoenix Plaza tenants, guests, and visitors. "This is one of a few buildings in the world to deploy wireless in every square inch of the building. We have moved from the concept of ?Hot Spot? to ?Hot Building?, says Darlene Casella. ?With Wi-Fi as building amenity, tenants, guests, and visitors will be able to turn on a laptop, PDA or web tablet and immediately be on the internet? adds Diana Rivers, CBRE Richard Ellis Building Manager at Phoenix Plaza.
Making the system even more unique, CBRE will deploy numerous back end uses to better serve its tenants. One example includes a web based work order system, utilizing the wireless infrastructure. "Our engineers will carry web tablets and Pocket PC?s, opening and closing tenant work orders on the spot, says Rivers.
About CB Richard Ellis. CB Richard Ellis is a global leader in real estate services. With 220 principal offices in 48 countries, we complete thousands of successful transactions each year ? with clients from the gamut of industries. For more information, see www.cbre.com
About Wireless Facilities Inc. Wireless Facilities Inc. is responsible for the installation, deployment, and network management. WFI is the leading independent provider of network outsourcing solutions for the wireless telecommunications industry. For more information see www.wfinet.com
About Bandwidth Now. Bandwidth Now is a market leader in creating ?next gen? building environments deploying over 4.3 million square feet of buildings. Using its patent pending architecture, Bandwidth Now has been profiled by Wall Street Journal, Cisco News, Cisco IQ Magazine, Fast Company Magazine, Commercial Property News, Computer World Honors Program and several other major publications. For more information see www.bandwidthnow.com.
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