Whispering (Wi-Fi) Palm Trees... "Meet me at McDonald's 'next gen' wireless boardroom in the NBC Building in San Diego." Is this a joke?, I thought to myself. No, Matt Spathas, a partner with Sentre Partners was just getting started. "Check out our live ice rink web cam next door and, if you need Internet access outdoors, visit our palm tree Hot Spots."

Here's a revolutionary thought. Sentre treats broadband access as a utility, like water and electricity, and adds Wi-Fi wireless connectivity as an amenity. Sentre operates its own building optical network and achieves huge savings by aggregating the demands of multiple users. Tenants pay only about $250 per month for 100 Mbs speed. Translation: That's about one-fifth the cost and sixty times the speed of a normal T-1 line. (Bandwidth Now, cofounded by Spathas, provides the infrastructure.)

I know that this sounds geeky, but Spathas wanted to show me the rooftop antennas at Sentre's flagship property in downtown San Diego, One American Plaza, co-owned with GE Asset Management. So Matt, Jim Young and I climbed up the metal spiral stairs to the apex of the 34-story, 500-foot-tall building. What was I thinking?

Sentre beams high speed access from these antennas to two other managed buildings in San Diego, the NBC Building and the SBC Building. That's also part of the savings. It sure looked simple. Centralize high-speed access, distribute it to your buildings, make it easy for tenants to access and charge them a modest fee. It's so logical. Why won't all building owners offer this service someday?

--Peter Pike