John Meko of WiredScore: 5 Questions

WiredScore’s latest report, “Fit for lease: How digital connectivity became the new test for Class A offices,” finds that 81 percent of tenants would choose an office suite with connectivity already installed over one without.

The report also indicated that 99 percent of those surveyed expect AI to be adopted across their organizations within the next two years, and 94 percent now consider connectivity fundamental to their business as utilities. Additionally, the research found 89 percent would not renew because of poor connectivity, while 88 percent said they would sign a longer lease for superior connectivity.

John Meko, WiredScore’s vice president for North America, said that the survey’s results were surprising, even to an industry veteran like himself, as well as to Meter, a leading provider of internet infrastructure for enterprise. Meter acquired WiredScore, a longtime global standard for benchmarking digital connectivity, in February 2026.

On Tuesday, Commercial Observer spoke with Meko about the survey results, including why there is a significant gap between office occupiers’ expectations and reality, as only one in four tenants currently has working connectivity from day one of occupancy.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Commercial Observer: What did this survey reveal that was surprising?

John Meko: It shows that tenants in today’s office market are becoming increasingly dependent on foundational connectivity infrastructure to operate their businesses. In 2026, that’s something that tenants generally assume is a solved problem for them when they’re signing a lease in a Class A or B commercial office building. 

What the data showed that was incredibly surprising is that it’s not. There’s a gap in the market between expectation and reality, which is a consistent point of friction in their move-in process.

Who’s to blame for that gap?

No single stakeholder entity is to blame. This is a structural problem with the way that connectivity is delivered in office buildings and buildings of all topologies for tenants. Unlike other utilities — water, electricity — connectivity isn’t something that a landlord can control. The challenge is they know that tenants need connectivity to operate, they view it as a utility, and cannot operate without reliable internet and Wi-Fi. But the process of actually getting that installed and operational within their suites is incredibly disjointed. It’s a multi-stakeholder process and time-consuming, which was evidenced by the fact that only one in four tenants had its internet fully operational by its lease start date, which was surprising even for me, having been in this space for the last 15 years.

But aren’t there multiple proptech companies that provide turnkey, all-inclusive solutions for connectivity to landlords?

There are coworking operators who include internet and Wi-Fi as part of your rent, but the majority of spaces obviously aren’t coworking. So, if you look at a landlord who is pre-building spaces, the typical scope is to install the furnishing, the infrastructure within the suite, but that hasn’t yet extended to the technology. There aren’t property technology companies focused on this space outside of what we are doing, because it’s a capital-intensive problem to solve speculatively before a tenant signs a lease.

After WiredScore was acquired by Meter, in partnership with them we’re actually bringing that utility-like experience for tenants into office buildings. We are putting in that infrastructure speculatively ahead of tenant leases, so that way it can become turnkey when they actually move in.

So your survey seems to confirm Meter’s business plan, if not being a little self-serving.

It’s an independent, third-party survey with more than 600 decision-makers. The results of that were something that we thought would show a problem in this market, but was definitely more than we anticipated.

I think the watershed moment is going to be when tenants are driving this discussion at scale holistically. We see tenants prioritizing move-in-ready spaces from a leasing standpoint. If you look at the numbers from 2019 to today, there’s 50 percent more move-in-ready spaces on the market, and the leasing transactions in those spaces is typically happening 30 to 40 percent faster than fully built shell spaces from years prior. 

Tenants are voting with their leases, and they’re prioritizing more move-in-ready spaces as part of their real estate strategy. I think the next evolution of that is tenants continuing to prioritize spaces that are equipped from a technology standpoint.

So how is Meter trying to fill that gap?

That’s ultimately what we are doing now — scaling this model. To our knowledge, no one’s ever done this before in the world. 

This is a multi-stakeholder process. You’re dealing with internet service providers, cabling providers, and Wi-Fi infrastructure companies like Cisco and Palo Alto Networks, who ultimately don’t have a comprehensive way of basically making this turnkey, because there’s multiple independent companies involved in that process. 

So, for every tenant, you’re basically starting from scratch in every building that you move into. What we are doing is bringing this model to all our customers in the real estate sector across the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Germany. The model itself doesn’t cost money for landlords. We make a speculative investment in the spaces by putting in that infrastructure, and, in turn, when tenants move in, they simply activate the service and pay a monthly subscription fee instead of a capital-intensive process.

We have more than 50 owners that we’re working with on this model. Ultimately, it should be something that makes tenants’ lives easier, but also landlords’, in that you’re not dealing with a delayed move-in process and more capital-intensive tenant fit-outs.

Philip Russo can be reached at prusso@commercialobserver.com.