Statement from Greg Singleton – President, Metro Development Group
When 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.
I could be one of your typical buyer profiles – I’m married with two kids, ages 7 and 14, and a wife who manages the house. I’m in the market to upgrade my home and would prefer to buy new. It wasn’t long ago my family only had 2 iPhones and a PC. Now we have 3 iPhones, an iPad, two laptops, a printer, and a Mac – all pushing the limits of our available Wi-Fi speeds.
My experience when I get home tonight will be very similar to many of your buyers. I can expect my 7 year old daughter to be streaming “My Little Pony” on Netflix, my wife to be listening to music over Pandora, and my son to be playing Xbox when he in fact should be on his laptop doing homework. Meanwhile, I’ll have some work to do and need to remote into our network back at the office.
I think about how my data usage has grown in just a few years and can’t even fathom what my needs will be in 5 years or even 10. Whatever it may be, my current data connection will have to be upgraded. As builders and developers, we also have to project what future demands will be.
Builders and developers face opposition to our projects because of traffic impacts. When our roads aren’t equipped to handle the traffic they say the “roads fail” and force us to widen roads and install turn signals to address the problem, all the while adding significant burden and cost to the project.
The need for data is not that different; if I’m just one typical example, multiply that by 1,000 or 2,000 families in a project. Most projects won’t be equipped to handle the data demands and, in a manner of speaking, their “roads will fail.” With the help of Bright House, we are addressing this issue in ways NO one else is considering. I can’t help but believe this will help drive buyers to Union Park, Park Creek, and Waterleaf.