Would you market your new homes by saying, "Toilets included!" Of course not. Consumers expect that your homes have toilets, like many other basic amenities.

That's the same conclusion reached by Rick Mildner, of Douglasville Development LLC in Douglasville, Ga., when marketing the Fiber to the Home (FTTH) included in his master-planned community Tributary at New Manchester.

During the initial phase, the Gen X-targeted development did not include FTTH, home networks or structured wiring. Why? Because in the polling and focus group research conducted by the company, these high-speed amenities were never mentioned by prospects in the Gen X demographic. Therefore, Mildner assumed it was not desired or important. He could not have been more wrong. He found out how wrong he was when the first buyers moved in and were soon causing a tumultuous uproar.

But if the amenity is soooo important to these buyers, why wasn't it mentioned during the planning process? Mildner discovered it is because high-speed connectivity is an expected amenity … just like a toilet. It never registered on his research radar because Gen X and Gen Y buyers assume it will already be there.

Thus describes, in a nutshell, the basic generational gap between most builders and today's homebuyers. That technology gap was the focus of the Tech Keynote at TBX by Mildner in a session called "Fiber to the Home = Dollars to the Builder: Cash In on a Red Hot Trend."

Planning for Gen X Buyers
Mildner, joking, references his lack of technological know-how when remembering that he once thought cell phones and e-mail were unnecessary. "It's safe to say that I've never been at the forefront of any technological revolution," he says. But today, at Tributary at New Manchester, he is. "I have learned this vital lesson about technology: As knowledge advances, so do expectations."

After years spent selling homes to baby boomers, Tributary is the company's first master-planned community targeting Gen X. The 1,475-acre, mixed-use community in Atlanta's western suburbs incorporates a range of residential neighborhoods, a village center with boutique retailers, a supermarket-anchored community center and a commerce park with mid-rise office buildings. The single-family detached homes in the "Village" section are priced from the mid-$200,000s to $800,000. Townhomes are in the mid-$190,000s. The "River" section ranges from the mid-$200,000 to the low $500,000s. The "Ridge" area will include pricier custom homes.

"Tributary is, to our knowledge, the first master-planned community whose primary market is Generation X," says Mildner. His research showed Gen X wants neo-classical architecture, social interaction via a central activity center, a fitness center, tree-lined streets and wide sidewalks. All the public areas have wireless hotspots.

"So what didn't show up in our research? Technology," says Mildner. "Why? Because Gen X-ers take it for granted. It is not an amenity. Our wireless hotspots are amenities, but high-speed Internet access, TiVo, premium channels, cell phones — they're not amenities to Gen X-ers. They're necessities."

Mildner says the "Star Wars" generation was made for fiber-optic technology. "But I'd like to clear up a misconception about Gen X-ers. People often assume that because Gen X-ers use technology, they understand it. They don't. They're just more prolific — and consequently, more proficient — users.

He says it is a misconception among people who provide technology services that the younger generation are technophiles. "They often assume, when speaking to people their own age, that those people are technophiles as well. That assumption is dead wrong. Like the rest of us, Gen X-ers have no idea how the Internet works, or the telephone or cable television. But they expect them to work — all of the time. And they don't understand or care about the complexities that sometimes cause them not to work," he adds.

Mildner says after two years and hundreds of Tributary home sales, he is very confident in his conclusion that few Gen X-ers know what fiber optic technology is, and they don't know how it works.

"Fiber-optic technology is a feature, not a benefit. And this is a benefit-based economy. And above all else, Gen X-ers are a benefit-based generation," he says.

Why Choose FTTH?
So, why then did Douglasville Development choose fiber-to-the-home for its Tributary at New Manchester community? Mildner ticks off a list of reasons:

• It offers multiple benefits to all generations of homebuyers.
• It is far more reliable than coaxial cable.
• The community looks better. The streetscape isn't cluttered with ugly communication pedestals.
• It doesn't use or conduct electricity, supporting our "green" building platform.
• Those residents with the right equipment enjoy more vibrant television.
• It supports faster Internet access, file sharing and downloads.
• It enables economical bundling of services.
• It increases property values. By industry estimates, properties that have direct fiber-to-the-home are valued $5,000 to $9,400 more than similar properties that do not.
• And services can be ready at move-in, unlike most telephone and cable companies.

"But even more importantly, we chose fiber-to-the-home, because at Tributary, we're selling timelessness in a world governed by the acceleration of knowledge. And accelerated knowledge equates to accelerated obsolescence," he says. That obsolescence is characterized perfectly by the transition to high-def digital TV broadcasts, which start in early 2009.

"In a world governed by the acceleration of knowledge, fiber optic technology is the closest proven thing to timelessness available today," says Mildner. "Fiber optic technology can accommodate greater bandwidth and higher speeds than any technology currently available, on the horizon or over the horizon. If we want to ensure that our homes won't be technologically obsolete — that they will be able to access future technologies — we must be sure that the home is wired to anticipate future technologies and access them at the fastest means possible. Fiber optic technology enables us to best protect ourselves against the inevitable technological obsolescence that is surely just down the road."

The FTTH system at Tributary was created working with Connexion Technologies, a Cary, N.C.-based service provider. The system includes premium cable television, telephone with long

distance and high-speed Internet access built into Homeowners Association (HOA) dues. Monitored security is offered as an option. The network delivers HDTV, Video on Demand (VOD) and Internet file sharing among other things.

Mildner says one of the greatest assets to the FTTH deployment is that few other area communities offer it, helping to support its image as a forward-thinking, out-of-the-box community. Currently, there are 250 residents in the community.

Connexion designed, installed and operates the community's network with its own capital. The company provides marketing support to Tributary. Mildner says using Connexion versus the local phone and cable companies enables Tributary to deliver service to residents at a lower cost, while opening an opportunity to share in the service provider's profits. "In retrospect, our decision was the correct one, and we are pleased with our choice of vendors," he adds.

In the end, pricing was important. Two years ago, the community charged $116.50 per month for high-speed Internet, 70 cable channels, phone service with 400 minutes of long distance. The price today is $121 per month. The total cost is equivalent to the price a resident would pay to an outside provider for just two of the services.

"You have to overcome the fact that it is mandatory," say Mildner. "That's a big issue with Gen X-ers — they don't want to be told that they don't have options."

What Are the Caveats?
FTTH can't be all rosy, can it? No, there are some cautionary notes.

First, the FTTH network offers faster baseline capacity, but whether it actually delivers the fastest service depends on your service provider's bandwidth and your community's usage.

Also, you're on the hook every time there's a problem, advises Mildner. "And the gap between dissatisfaction with the service provider and dissatisfaction with the developer is infinitesimal to nonexistent."

He says putting disclaimers in your service agreement is important, but it still won't quell complaints. "At Tributary, as far as our residents are concerned, they are customers of Mildner Communications Services. If there's a problem, I can't point to the service provider. I'm him," he says.

Another important caveat for other developers to consider is construction cost and time. Mildner says the FTTH deployment complicates the construction process and increases construction expense.

Also, he says it is important to provide minimum specs for your builders. He cited one builder in the community who put two phone jacks, one data port and two cable TV outlets in a 3,400-square-foot home. In terms of reliability, Mildner says the system has been up almost 100 percent of the time.

In the end, Mildner sees the two primary advantages to deploying a FTTH network as the competitive marketing advantage — among all consumers, not just Gen X-ers — and the chance to share in the ongoing profits.