The modern tenant has high expectations for building connectivity. As more people rely on their devices for news and updates, they expect all the spaces they inhabit to support their growing need for connectivity, from their apartment to their grocery store. And building owners are feeling the pressure to keep up.

Today, more building owners are taking measures to make their buildings smarter and more connected. To appeal to tenants, these buildings have begun implementing services, applications and technologies like building automation, asset management, high-tech security and digital signage through a robust base building network. For today’s commercial real estate buildings, network infrastructure is now treated as a mandatory utility, much like mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems.

“It’s easy to believe at this point that connectivity is the lifeblood of all modern businesses,” WiredScore founder and CEO Arie Barendrecht said to Bisnow. “The key thing to realize is almost every important thing we do at work, every application we use, is on connectivity.”

As networks shift from wired to wireless, the demand for connectivity is increasing. The traditional approach of installing a single-purpose infrastructure in a building is no longer an efficient or effective method. Instead, building owners are relying on fiber infrastructure to power in-building connectivity.

Fiber is attractive to buildings because it can converge and support multiple services and applications, including voice, data and video. This approach allows for higher connectivity, empowering the multiple stakeholders within a building, from owners and tenants to service providers, to deploy the applications they need through a single infrastructure.

Fiber has replaced copper as the preferred backbone for in-building connectivity infrastructure. While there is still a place for copper in smart building infrastructure, the limitations of these solutions for distance, space and bandwidth mean that networks should rely on copper for only the final few meters.

While technology is rapidly changing, commercial real estate has historically been slow to adopt these new building trends. But if Class-A buildings fail to innovate quickly enough, they may miss out on the opportunity to attract Class-A tenants.

“Commercial real estate is undoubtedly on the cusp of revolution,” Corning VP of Network Architecture Bill Cune said. “As technology continues to evolve and new platforms are enabled, the demand and the need for buildings to be smart and connected will expand.”

This feature was produced in collaboration between Bisnow Branded Content and Corning. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.