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Phone service for gate..

Started by ChrisK7 • 10 replies • 2745 views

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ChrisK7 (Georgia)
Posts: 7
Posted:
Hi,

I've searched high and low on this site and not found the answer, so here goes:

- We have a small (9 homes) gated community in GA
- Single gate with call box
- We have a current gate phone service which is $120 a month
- A member of the board is insistent we need XYZ provider because it's imposed by the county... I checked, and the county has no rules

What kind of service provider does everyone use for their gates? What's the normal cost?

Any input would be helpful
RichardP13 (California)
Posts: 3,868
Posted:
You are wasting your money on phone service, as it is used for intercom service only. Have guests call via cell phone to have you open the gate. Otherwise, the remote you have will allow you entrance onto your property.
ShirleyC (California)
Posts: 117
Posted:
we used at&t in California; cost was approx. $30 per mo 4 units, but I don't see what diff that would make; the whole complex had the call number to open and close the gate remotely if needed.
DouglasK1 (Florida)
Posts: 2,046
Posted:
We use AT&T POTS (plain old telephone service). Our only other option would be the cable company or possibly some kind of cellular service. If we leave AT&T alone, the price creeps up and has hit as high as $115 per month. Our last treasurer called them a few years ago and got it down some, but it had crept back up around $113 by the time I became treasurer. The former treasurer suggested I should give them another call.

I talked to them and was told we were on a month to month plan, but if we agreed to an annual contract, we would get a $49.00 monthly discount. Based on how the taxes and fees are calculated, we are actually saving a little over $49/month, we're paying $57 and change now all in. That still seems expensive to me, but since it is a business line, the rates are higher than home lines. The contract is supposedly renewable for two more years at the same price.

My experience is that the cable and cell companies level of reliability is still far short of POTS, so I didn't even bother exploring the other options. Even if we saved a little more per month, it's not worth getting calls from homeowners that the gate panel phone line is down.
Escaped former treasurer and director of a self managed association.
DouglasK1 (Florida)
Posts: 2,046
Posted:
Quote:
Posted By RichardP13 on 07/08/2015 10:24 AM
You are wasting your money on phone service, as it is used for intercom service only. Have guests call via cell phone to have you open the gate. Otherwise, the remote you have will allow you entrance onto your property.

How would homeowners open the gate for visitors with no phone line to the gate panel controller?
Escaped former treasurer and director of a self managed association.
ShirleyC (California)
Posts: 117
Posted:
they have to walk outside and use their remote and if they want the gate open for maybe a roofer to come and go they can manuualy bypass with a lever so the gate stays open.
DouglasK1 (Florida)
Posts: 2,046
Posted:
Quote:
Posted By ShirleyC on 07/08/2015 10:49 AM
they have to walk outside and use their remote and if they want the gate open for maybe a roofer to come and go they can manuualy bypass with a lever so the gate stays open.

That might work for a tiny association, most of our houses are way too far from the gate for the remote to work.
Escaped former treasurer and director of a self managed association.
RichardP13 (California)
Posts: 3,868
Posted:
Douglas

Visitors would punch a code into box. It's a small (9 homes) association.
DouglasK1 (Florida)
Posts: 2,046
Posted:
Quote:
Posted By RichardP13 on 07/08/2015 11:31 AM
Douglas

Visitors would punch a code into box. It's a small (9 homes) association.

Richard,

Thanks, that's an option, but unless you generate temporary codes somehow, those people then have a code they could use any time in the future to get in. That might not be a problem with close friends, but we really don't want every delivery person in the county to have 24 hour access.
Escaped former treasurer and director of a self managed association.
AaronJ (California)
Posts: 48
Posted:
We use AT&T basic telephone service with no long distance and no features. Its about $40 a month.
GenoS (Florida)
Posts: 4,276
Posted:
Quote:
Posted By DouglasK1 on 07/08/2015 11:38 AM
Thanks, that's an option, but unless you generate temporary codes somehow, those people then have a code they could use any time in the future to get in. That might not be a problem with close friends, but we really don't want every delivery person in the county to have 24 hour access.

That's exactly the situation I'm in. The "vendor" gate code hasn't changed in over 20 years. Each of our 100 residences has their own private 3-digit gate code. Owners come and go but the individual codes for each residence have never been changed either.

90% of Americans own cell phones. That still leaves 1 in 10 that doesn't have one and requiring someone to have a cell phone in order to gain entrance is not a reasonable requirement. Especially, as someone else pointed out, there still needs to be some sort of telephone service INTO the gate controller so that residents can trigger the gate from inside their homes.

Our budget for telephone and internet is $5,000 a year which, to my mind, is way too much for the service we get in return. We have AT&T U-Verse cable and wireless internet in our clubhouse. The TV is watched maybe for a total of 20 hours a year. The clubhouse phone is part of the U-Verse service. We also have landlines for the gatehouse and the maintenance building. I was told that the reason these services are so expensive is because we've got business class service.

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