REON brings added value to commercial real estate.

It used to be that the only utilities a New Hampshire business needed from a commercial property were electricity, air conditioning and a telephone connection. But those days are over now that the 21st century is here.

A fourth essential utility -- high-speed Internet access -- is now in great demand. How many businesses today can survive without e-mail and a connection to the World Wide Web?

Not many. Unfortunately, many business owners have experienced first-hand the risk of leasing commercial space and then waiting up to eight, 10 and even 12 weeks for a local exchange carrier to deliver an Internet connection. The connection may be high speed, but the wait for service is anything but.

REON Broadband (short for Real Estate On the Net) has introduced a new service that will help alleviate the pain of finding high-speed Internet access in Portsmouth, Concord, Manchester and most of New Hampshire. Moving into a REON Smart Building provides many advantages to small- and medium-sized businesses that need high-speed connectivity to compete in the New England business world.

REON provides property owners and tenants with a single point of contact in their building for high-speed Internet access services, data back-up and off-site storage, network security and many other advanced communication services that the company offers as part of its Building Local Exchange Carrier broadband program. REON installs gigabit Ethernet wiring in each building -- one of the fastest connections available.

In order to help businesses find these "lit" buildings, REON recently put its Smart Buildings listing service on line at www.smartlistings.net. With a few clicks of a mouse, a business owner can look for already existing commercial properties that deliver high-speed Internet access as a "fourth" utility. No more waiting. A business owner can lease a building with broadband connectivity as part of the building's infrastructure. It's as simple as plugging in a telephone.

Here's how www.smartlistings.net works. Click New Hampshire on the map and then choose from an alphabetical list of cities and towns. Need property in Portsmouth? How about a suite at the historic Franklin Block at 75 Congress St.? Need commercial real estate in Manchester? How about 175 Canal St. or 1001 Elm?

"The Smart Buildings listing service helps building owners lease space, allows prospective tenants to find the space they need and enables us to introduce our broadband services to a wide array of new customers," said Tom Remillard, CEO of REON Broadband. "Moving into a building we have previously wired gives tenants a competitive advantage by having broadband services deployed as soon as they arrive, at a lower cost than incumbent local carriers."

The on-line service allows businesses to check out commercial properties all over New England, but with a focus on New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Every listing includes a photograph and contact information for businesses interested in learning more about the property.

"Because the Internet and e-mail are essential to our business, we needed a reliable provider. Thankfully, we are located in one of REON's Smart Buildings that was already wired with high-speed broadband access. We didn't have to wait weeks for the local phone company," said Timothy Sideris, vice president of Sideris Consulting Group Inc.

He added, "REON offers exceptional services and uptime. We find that working in a REON-lit building gives us a major business advantage."

REON has a simple philosophy -- the company is wiring commercial property in New England one building at a time, for free. Rather than focus on high population areas such as Boston and Cambridge, REON has adopted a grassroots broadband solution. The company is bringing underserved communities the highest-quality Internet connections by using a regional approach, rather than a national one. REON focuses on suburban communities and small cities like Portsmouth, Manchester and Concord.

Despite being brand new, the Smart Listings service has already helped many real estate owners by attracting new tenants. In one case, the offices of a mid-sized software company were completely flooded by water over the weekend and it needed to find new space with broadband access by the following Monday

"I showed the client a suite that was lit with REON's service, and within days we signed the lease, the tenant moved in, and the same week was sending e-mails," said Eric Brosler, a senior broker with Investment Property Specialist in Framingham, Mass. "This couldn't have happened without REON already up and running in the building."