One anecdote circulating among high-end real estate brokers has Jay Z, the hip-hop artist and entrepreneur, walking away several years ago from a long-term lease on a luxury apartment in a Midtown East high-rise after just a few nights because his cellphone service was nothing to rap about. A publicist for Jay Z did not respond to a request for comment.

Of course, it’s not just billionaires who expect their cellphones to work in their apartments. Renters on a budget are equally obsessed with their phones, particularly millennials, many of whom grew up with mobile devices in hand.

Audrey Huffman, 26, who in August moved to Manhattan from Houston to start a job working in tax advising, checked the cellphone reception at every place she toured during an apartment-hunting visit this summer. Making sure she could connect to the Internet and send and receive texts was at the top of her mind, she said, because “at my parents’ house I have terrible cellphone reception.”

At each prospective apartment, Ms. Huffman immediately took a photograph, sent it to her three older sisters via text and awaited their feedback. While she was able to send and receive texts at each place she visited, the prewar studio she ended up renting for $2,800 a month had “the most bars,” she said. “It definitely played a part in my decision,” added Ms. Huffman, who found her home with the help of Holly Harnsongkram, a saleswoman with Town Residential. “If one of them did not have cellphone service, that would have been a no for me.”

That’s the scenario developers are trying to avoid.

“Cellphones are just fundamental to how everyone lives,” said Michael Gordon, the director of construction at World Wide Group, which is investing $1.8 million for a distributed antenna system at 252 East 57th Street, a new 65-story condominium tower with a curved glass facade. Costs for distributed antenna systems are typically based on square footage and range from $1 to $3 a square foot.

The building will house some 470 antennas and more than 20,000 linear feet of coaxial cable to ensure residents paying $4.3 million and up for apartments will have uninterrupted wireless service. “For this level of building that’s top-end in every way, a D.A.S. is just part of the scope of the work,” Mr. Gordon said.