Residents count outages, not uptime
What 11,614 multifamily residents told 20for20 and ResiDesk about their WiFi, and what an owner actually controls.
A 2025 study of 30,000 units by 20for20 and ResiDesk, in collaboration with RETTC, found that residents who reported weekly WiFi outages did not renew their leases 83% of the time. The average non-renewal rate across the study was 44%.
Residents who complained about WiFi for any other reason renewed at that average rate. Outages were the one complaint that moved the number.
The authors are careful to call this correlation, not proof of cause. We'd read it the way owners read a maintenance backlog: a risk signal worth acting on before it hardens into a pattern.
What the study measured
Instead of a survey, the researchers ran open-ended text conversations with residents over 90 days, then matched sentiment against actual renewal outcomes pulled from property management systems at 30, 60 and 90 days. Of 30,000 units contacted across 246 communities in 11 states, 11,614 residents engaged.
The sample skews toward the middle of the market: just more than half were garden-style, 30% mid-rise and roughly half Class B. About 18% of residents were on managed WiFi versus 82% on retail internet, which tracks with most industry estimates of managed WiFi penetration.
Residents don't think in uptime percentages
Nobody in 11,614 conversations said 99.9%. Residents described outages the way they experience them: once a month, once a week, etc. The study found one outage a month is tolerated. Multiple outages change behavior, and in the worst cases, residents start talking about moving.
Speed followed the same logic. It mattered only when it failed.
Once a connection could handle video calls and streaming, faster went unnoticed. Coverage was treated as a baseline expectation, not something residents credit a provider for. And residents said, consistently, that they'd rather the connection never break than have someone great to call when it does.
Managed WiFi residents complain about different things
Complaint volume was nearly identical between managed and retail residents. What they complained about was not.
- Speed: 27% of retail conversations, 3% of managed
- Outages: 16% of retail conversations, 5% of managed
- Shopping for alternative providers: 15% of retail conversations, 4% of managed
Managed residents talked more about device setup and coverage gaps instead.
The authors' read: The issues that push residents to leave are exactly the ones managed WiFi architecture is designed to prevent. Managed residents still have complaints, but theirs tend to get resolved with a visit rather than a move-out notice.
What an owner controls
Four decisions sit with ownership regardless of who runs the network.
Design for 8 p.m.
Peak-hour density decides whether a network holds up. Access point placement, channel planning and unit density matter more than the headline speed on a proposal.
Size the backbone and build in redundancy
Most outage patterns trace back to undersized backhaul or a single point of failure. Ask for the circuit design, not just the speed tier.
Write the contract in outage frequency, not uptime
Uptime percentages are how vendors talk. Ask how many outages per community per month a vendor will commit to, how fast they detect degradation and what the credit is when they miss.
Make the first outage the last one
A resident who reaches a human in less than 35 seconds and gets a root-cause fix is a resident who never forms the weekly pattern. Support is what keeps a single incident a single incident.
The gap worth closing
The authors put it plainly: WiFi behaves like a utility when it works and becomes an amenity the moment it fails. Owners underwrite it as a utility. Residents renew based on it as an amenity. The 83% lives in that gap.
Read the full study at theresidesk.com/wifi-sentiment-study.
If you want to compare its findings against what your onsite teams are hearing, we'd like that conversation. Start at elauwit.com/get-started.