Technology Statement from President of Metro Development Group

Statement from Greg Singleton – President, Metro Development Group               

MDG LogoWhen our technology initiative first started, I would listen to Tom Reiman and the experts at Bright House get all excited discussing Fiber to the Home, EPON, IPTV, and Gigabit.  He mentioned how Google Fiber was changing the industry and the new Smart Home requires IP addresses to each device.  He dragged me to tour server farms in Texas, visit command central for Bright House, and meet with so many technology geeks that I felt like I was at a Star Trek convention.

While I could pick up on the enthusiasm of these industry insiders; I kept saying guys – this all sounds great, but can I have 50 parents at the community pool on a Saturday all streaming Netflix without the system melting down?  Can I push a stroller on the connected trails and keep up my Wi-Fi connection?    Can a family run 10 smart devices at once?  We’ve all been there, the whole family simultaneously connected; you try to download something and everything freezes, the system is trying to keep up with the data demand and just can’t, you get that spinning wheel, I call it the spinning wheel of death.

To their credit, Tom and John Dickinson (Bright House) were early adopters; I was slower to come around.  Tom talked to me about Google Fiber changing the industry, the need to develop communities with a technology plan in place, and why we should demand Fiber to the Home and Gigabit speed in our communities, and gradually I came around.  I began to understand the power of technology as an amenity.

I began to think of technology not just to check the box to say “we have that too,” but a tangible way to differentiate you from the competitor; it gives the salesperson sitting in the model home something unique to discuss with a buyer.

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