Detroit Free Press (January 19, 2004):

"Wi-Fi Access a Perk for Some Metro-Area Renters" -

Mike Wendland

Wi-Fi has moved into the metro are far beyond the home network or the occasional hot spot at a restaurant or coffee shop.

From the new Wi-Fi service that went online last month in the midfield terminal at Metro Airport to the Detroit Marriott Renaissance Center hotel to boaters at the Detroit Yacht club, wireless broadband Internet systems are sprouting up faster than winter potholes on the Lodge Freeway.

The Latest example of how this high-speed means having always-on access to Web sites and e-mail is being applied in new business settings in Auburn Hills, where an entire apartment complex has gone Wi-Fi.

All 256 units of the Boulevard apartment can no tap into the Internet wirelessly; something owner and general manager Ken Koss says is a major draw in luring new tenants during what has generally been a tough time in the apartment rental business.

Koss' complex rents to a well-heeled crowd, many of whom are executives for nearby DaimlerChrysler AG or Volkswagen pr the French and Japanese auto supply firms attracted to Auburn Hills and its booming development.

"I won't say that having wireless Internet is the determining factor in having them lease from us. But it's a deal clincher," Koss says. "It's something that is enormously convenient over a fixed cable modem or DSL connection because the can be online from any room in the apartment - even the bathroom, if they want."

Koss build the Walton Boulevard complex in 1989. After DaimlerChrysler opened its hug headquarters a mile or so down nearby Squirrel Road, he said he began getting so many German-speaking tenants that he learned the language himself.

"They all have laptops and are used to carrying them around and being online wherever they go in the office," he says. "They like to do the same thing here at home."

The boulevard includes free Wi-Fi access for those renting furnished units, the package chose by most of the business lessees. Tenants who furnish their own units themselves get unlimited Wi-Fi for $24,95 a month, almost half the monthly fee for undiscounted cable or DSL modem packages.

Matthew Morin, whose networking company Macro Connect did the installation for the complex over the fall, says without Wi-Fi the only broadband option for the tenants was long-term contracts with cable or DSL companies.

"To build its own wired network would have required digging and burying cable for the complex," Morin says. "That would have been costly and messy."

Morin says new technology has greatly improved Wi-Fi security, making it very difficult to penetrate by hackers or so-called car drivers, who drive around in vehicles looking for unsecured wireless networks.

Macro Connect installed three access points in each of the 18 buildings in the complex. On top of each building is a directional antenna, providing a bridge network to the next building.

When a tenant moves in or asks for the service, Morin or a technician authorizes the customer's computer by typing in an identifying number. No installers, cables or plugs are needed. It takes less than a minute.

The Boulevard is the first apartment complex his company has set up with Wi-Fi and the only one he knows of in the area, although he believes several others, as well as condominiums, are in the planning stages.

"People actually make a decision about where to live based on Internet access," Morin says.

Koss agrees. "I'll be talking to prospective tenants and they pull out a list. And right up there with being close to shopping and other community attractions I can see they've written down 'Internet access.' I think it's as much as an essential these days as air conditioning."