New tenants in the building -- at 332 Kent St in the central business district -- will be able to use a wireless network that belongs to the building owner and is maintained by Colliers through a partnership with Logical Networks.
Paul Baxter, a Colliers project manager, concedes there's an extra cost to the owner of the building to start with, but says there's also an opportunity to generate revenue through the technology.
"The owner of the building is taking a commercial risk," he said at the launch. "[There's] an additional cost in the construction phase".
The general idea behind the installation is to sell the wireless connectivity much the same way as electricity or air-conditioning is provided as standard building services are provided today.
The tenant of the future will expect these types of connections, according to Cisco's director, channels and commercial for Australia and New Zealand, Kip Cole.
"We would expect certain services to be made available. We wouldn't dream of including our own water or power," he said. "Wireless has moved from the lab to commercial reality".
It remains to be seen if tenants will be happy at paying for the wireless kit as a part of their lease. It costs an extra AU$5 per square metre per-annum. Over the whole building--1,797 sqm of it--that works out to just under AU$9,000 a year in extra overheads.
That figure doesn't include any bandwidth or service provider fees.
