State legislatures across the U.S. are moving fast. Bills targeting bulk managed Wi-Fi in multifamily housing have already passed in California and Colorado, and more states are watching. The industry’s response has been largely anecdotal. That ends here. A movement of managed Wi-Fi providers, ISPs, PropTech companies, and multifamily operators is funding a rigorous, peer-reviewed economic impact study to put real numbers behind what’s actually at stake. Here’s why your organization should be part of it.
1. The Policy Debate Is Being Fought on False Premises
Legislation like California’s AB 1414 and Colorado’s HB 24-1334 is framed as expanding “consumer choice.” That framing goes largely unchallenged, not because it’s accurate, but because the industry lacks a peer-reviewed economic counterargument. Managed Wi-Fi is not a retail ISP subscription. It is building-wide infrastructure: engineered, deployed, and maintained as a shared system. Fragmenting it through opt-out mandates, open access requirements, or markup caps does not expand choice. It destroys the economies of scale that make affordable, always-on connectivity possible in the first place. This study will put that case into the language policymakers respect: data.
Without credible, quantified evidence, the “pro-consumer” framing will continue to win by default in every state that takes up similar legislation.
2. The Most Vulnerable Residents Stand to Lose the Most
The residents who benefit most from bulk-managed Wi-Fi are not market-rate renters with the flexibility to shop ISPs. They are seniors on fixed incomes, students on tight budgets, and low-income families in affordable housing: people who cannot absorb retail broadband installation fees, equipment rental charges, credit check requirements, or the service gaps that follow a disruptive opt-out. When participation rates fall below the threshold needed to sustain bulk pricing, the economics collapse for everyone. The study will quantify these distributional impacts with the specificity needed to make the equity argument stick in legislative hearings and regulatory proceedings.
Bulk-managed Wi-Fi delivers an estimated 20–40% cost savings over retail broadband, savings that matter most to the populations least able to bear higher costs.
3. Academic Credibility Is the Only Currency That Matters in Policy
Industry white papers are dismissed. Vendor case studies are discounted. What moves policymakers, regulators, and legislative staff is peer-reviewed, methodology-transparent academic research: the kind that can be cited in committee testimony, entered into regulatory records, and reported by credible media. This study is led by a team of PhD economists with a track record of peer-reviewed studies commissioned by the Wi-Fi Alliance, Wi-Fi Forward, and the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance. The research will be built to withstand scrutiny, because it will face it. The team applies the same partial-equilibrium economic impact framework used in regulatory proceedings worldwide, with full sensitivity analyses and a transparent data appendix designed for legislative scrutiny.
4. The Research Is Built to Work in Any State, Not Just the Ones Already Affected
California and Colorado are not endpoints; they are leading indicators. The regulatory framework analysis built into this study will model five distinct legislative scenarios: unrestricted bulk billing, opt-out mandates, open access requirements, markup restrictions, and combined regulatory packages. Every quantified finding and scenario model will be structured as a reusable toolkit, applicable to any proposed legislation in any state jurisdiction. When the next bill surfaces, the industry will have the evidence base ready, not scrambling to commission research after the legislative calendar has already closed. One study, purpose-built for ongoing use across any state-level legislative or regulatory challenge to managed connectivity models.
5. This is a Grassroots Movement Effort, and Every Contributor Shapes the outcome.
This study is not being funded by a single company protecting a single business model. It is a grassroots industry movement of managed Wi-Fi providers, ISPs, PropTech firms, and multifamily operators, pooling resources to commission research that serves the entire ecosystem. The cost of participation is low. The cost of not having this research, when the next bill advances, is not. Every company that waits for others to step up is betting its policy future on someone else's initiative. Early contributors are already on board. The window to shape this research and be recognized as a founding supporter is open now.
Support the Study
Join the movement. Back the study. Help build the evidence base that protects residents, operators, and the managed connectivity model, before the next bill advances.
https://bulk-managed-wifi-impact-study.maravedis-bwa.com
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