Survey of Businesses in
Multi-Tenant Commercial Buildings
February 21, 2001
A wide range of telecommunications services is being utilized at respondent business locations.Among the most-often mentioned are local and long distance telephone service, Internet access, e-mail and broadband services.Satisfaction with these services is high, with 97 percent of respondents indicating they are at least somewhat satisfied.
About 94 percent of respondents indicated that the telecommunications services currently being offered, including local telephone service, meet their needs at their current business location.Among the important needs that are not being met to a small portion of the market are DSL and other Internet connections.
ØThere is high awareness of alternative telecommunications providers.
Nearly all respondents (91 percent) indicated they are aware that they can choose alternative telecommunications providers for the services provided by their local incumbent telephone company.
ØA substantial percentage of businesses requested telecommunications services from alternative providers. The vast majority of requests have been accepted and installed on schedule.
One in four respondents (23 percent) indicated that their businesses have each placed at least one request for service with a telecommunications provider, other than their local incumbent telephone company, in the last three years.A significant majority of these businesses (87 percent) have had all of their service requests accepted.Among those whose business’ requests were accepted, 87 percent indicated the service was received upon the date agreed, and 90 percent were at least somewhat satisfied with the quality of service from the other telecommunications providers.
ØBuilding management is rarely identified as having denied service requests.
Less than one percent
of respondents indicated that the management of their buildings ever denied
their requests for telecommunications service from a provider not already
serving their building.
ØFour-out-of-ten businesses will consider moving elsewhere at lease renewal if important telecommunications needs aren’t being met at their current location.
If important telecommunications are not being met, 39 percent indicated they would consider changing business locations at lease renewal time.Additionally, the average lease length among the respondents is 3.6 years, with an average of 2 years remaining at the time of the survey.These data suggest that commercial tenants are indeed mobile.