A fully managed service end-to-end allows the residents of Catella to enjoy a quick and simple way to access their WiFi connection.
Offering specialist services in real estate, Catella are now operating in 11 different countries. Catella’s portfolio boasts around 60 student homes and Purpose-Built Student Accommodations (PBSA) across Europe including business accommodation. With their main office situated in central Berlin, the team have now been managing a European residential real estate portfolio for over 10 years.
Construction Type - Conway’s Home
- Concrete building, with alternating concrete and drywall partition walls.
- From the ground level, the building consists of two blocks, Haus 1 and Haus 2, with an intermediate building linking the two blocks at ground level.
- Basement level, car parking, bicycle storage, plant rooms, and communications server room.
Catella's Requirements
Catella first approached ASK4 with a need to improve their portfolio’s Internet connection in order to meet the expected standards of their residents and the needs of modern living. While ideal locations, high quality facilities, and unique architecture and furniture are what most residents look for, other things such as a secure and reliable Internet connection are an essential to everyday living.
ASK4 has been a partner of Catella for several years following an introduction through Collegiate AC. ASK4 had already been contracted to a site for Collegiate AC which then became an asset of Catella’s in 2015. After a successful service takeover, ASK4 has since been invited to deliver Internet services to many of Catella’s sites across Europe.
![ASK4 and ]Catella](https://www.ask4.com/assets/img/resized/basic--mobile/ask4-and-catella.jpg)
Project Summary
Conway’s Home is an 8-storey development comprising of 318 En-suite bed spaces. The site is one of Catella’s newly built Bremen developments and is conveniently located in the Bremen Technology Park directly on the University Campus. The site offers high-end modern interiors with spacious fully furnished apartments.
Previous to ASK4’s involvement, residents were provided with a hard-wired Ethernet connection and had to supply their own wireless router for WiFi connectivity. This resulted in an un-managed WiFi environment and dissatisfied residents. ASK4 was brought in to provide a managed Internet and WiFi service across the accommodation to be implemented during term time with minimal disruption to the residents.
ASK4 liaised with contractors to take over the existing building data cabling, enabling us to install their managed Internet and WiFi service much sooner than would have been achievable if a new fibre connection was needed. With a well thought out plan, ASK4 managed to complete the installation ahead of schedule.
A secure, reliable, and fast Internet connection was a key requirement from Catella to enable them to modernise their PBSA sites, as many students now work with smart technology (including smart watches, TVs, tablets, laptops and home assistants). With the installation of a building-wide distributed WiFi system, which involved installing a small access point into every room, each resident now has access to a fully pervasive wired and wireless network.
It was also a key requirement for Catella’s residents to have round the clock support. ASK4’s service is managed end-to-end and provides an award winning 24/7/365 multilingual technical support helpdesk. The team at Catella have always felt at ease knowing they can depend on ASK4’s support, whether this be through our technical helpdesk or client services management team.
Fabian Duwe, Head of Asset Management European Residential, said:
“The high-quality Internet, the excellent customer service and the smart solutions, offer an all-round carefree package and lead to the highest satisfaction of our tenants.
All these factors form the basis for the successful operation of student residences, which makes ASK4 our long-term, reliable partner with whom we are already active in many European countries.
We are looking forward to further partnership cooperation and managing further properties.”
Catella and COVID
With the outbreak of the pandemic and universities forced to close their campuses, it was vital that Catella’s Internet service was reliable and able to cope with high demand as students transitioned to online learning.
ASK4 was asked to take over a site in Linz during the pandemic. Milestone Linz (an asset owned by Catella and operated by Milestone) is an 8-storey development, comprising of 224 units (129 one bed apartments and 95 two-bedroom apartments). As a result of the pandemic, travel restrictions were in place and getting access to the site became quite challenging. ASK4 worked closely with Catella’s site managers to complete the installation during the height of restrictions caused by the pandemic.
