Will my gate intercom work with my cell phone?

Question

I live in a gated community that has an intercom system at the gate. People dial your code, it calls your house and when you answer you can press a number to open the gate for cars, or a different number to open the regular door.
When I first moved in the management asked to have my home number so they could program it into the intercom system. Now I really want to get rid of my land line and just have a cell phone. Will the intercom work with my cell? Could they program my cell number into the intercom so the intercom would just call my cell, and would the gate functions still work?
Management says this won't work but I suspect maybe they just don't like the idea of me being able to open the gate from anywhere, not just at home. I hate having to pay for a land line just so I can buzz people into the gate. Can someone give me a straight answer and tell me how these systems work?

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

The system will probably work with your cell phone, but getting management to let you is a problem. If there's nothing in the "rules & reg's" for your complex, I think they have to at least try it to see if it will work. Other options would be that when visitors call you, you go let them in yourself, or if you have a good friend/neighbor that can buzz people in for you - those really aren't very convenient for anybody though. I think I would work on the management - I agree with you that you shoudn't be forced to pay for a landline just to be able to receive guests. Good luck! I just thought of something else - It's not the phone inside your house that controls the gate it's the intercom unit at the gate, so that means it must respond to the touchtone of a specific number. Dunno if that helps or not, but it might :)

Answer 2

It works for our friends system where it dails his cell phone and he can open irrespective of where he is. Once we had him open gate even when he was out of town!

Answer 3

a friend of mine does this also - to buzz people into his building.

Why does mgmt have to know it's a cell phone? Just tell them your'e changing your home number and give them your cell.