Is intercom service mandatory to subscribe and why ?

SHORT ANSWER:
Yes. It is mandatory to subscribe for all residents. The objective is to complete implementation the service in continuation with the Terms & conditions outlined in "agreement to sell & construct" signed with builder. Also making  guarantees ubiquity, simplify roll-out,  reach and therefore usability of the service in addition to making the intercom business sustainable as independent service for service provider.


DETAILED ANSWER:
Telecom Sub-committee divides its project into two category:

1. End User facing Services - like DTH TV options (Operator T and A), Broadband providers ( Operator A, B, C, JS, etc). Our role is only technical and management support and regulatory
2. Apartment facing - CCTV, PP, Intercom. Our Role is to drive the  deployment and be the customer for the service on behalf of association

For category 1, we just facilitate the environment for infrastructure development, leave it to the ISP to offer services and to the residents to *choose and use what they want, till when they want and freedom to move to other if services not satisfactory

For category 2, we have only CCTV and Intercom for now, which are owned by apartment (anything builder buys and deploys like Business-Grade PBX and cabling gets transferred at extra (or included) cost to owners). Because its owned by apartment, all owners have to pay and share the costs. This is one reason why society had earlier decided in an SGBM that it is mandatory for all owners to pay for for CCTV, PP as well as Intercom. 

Mandatory subscription has a couple of benefits:

1. Firstly, the major reason on why intercom does not work in some societies is that many residents understand that it belongs to Category 1, as then they think its optional to use and ultimately decide to not use for some reason (The problem is more severe with tenanted flats, with tenants changing every year or two and our society will also have 50% plus tenants like any other). This causes coverage (and therefore utility holes) and requires society to unnecessarily look to other SaaS or Smartphone based App solutions to fill the void whereas the root of the problem is that intercom is not universally available in residents flats
2. Secondly, because we do not have copper networks and only FTTH in APR condominiums, their is an associated cost with ONT (which has not being paid by owners or builder) is as is the current practice in real estate market (usually Rs. 10,000-12,000 per apartment) . After careful optimisation of network and MDU ONT (shared ONT) deployment, the cost now has been bought down to only Rs. 1000 per flat one time and Rs. 100 pm subscription which will help the provider, Operator P to recover his CAPEX costs in 3-5 years time. After 8 years, the network will transfer to Association. At the end of the day, the service has to be commercially viable to be rolled out. Its easy to say, its not my problem, but that type of argument is hardly helpful to resolve the situation
3. Thirdly apart from the need for residents to call security, maintenance, facilities, etc., their is also a need for other residents, security, maintenance, facilities to call them for smooth operation of building easily. This is where a universally adopted intercom system is useful

Residents should also note that the Patch panel and Broadband choice has seriously upset the intercom traditional business model making it a very hard to fund and operate business because of minuscule returns which no big provider is ready to chase. However because of increased competition in APRC for broadband (which 90% plus homes use), the players have been forced to reduce prices drastically in last year. Installation charges of 1000-3000 are waived off. Monthly subscription is down by 25-50% for same speed (or speed is increased).  And the trend will continue with entry of new operators. We hope residents to not see the Rs. 100 monthly subscription as the roadblock to adoption and instead look at the *Value the intercom system is trying to generate for society, for they have been already subsidised in Broadband.