When new residents in the Moscow region buy additional SIM cards from the only mobile operator in their entire household, because others do not accept them in this place, this is regarded as an inconvenience, but “in the order of things.” Similar problems for buyers of new business- or premium-class buildings in the capital cause bewilderment, especially since marketers of developers in recent years have been paying special attention to the intellectual content of buildings and placing emphasis on this in advertising.

As a rule, in a high-quality smart home you can really set the desired temperature and humidity in the apartment, brighten the lights, transfer data to the dispatcher and do a lot of other useful things from your mobile phone. But only if there are no connection problems.

Residents especially often complain about the lack of communication in underground parking lots, the cost of a parking space in which is comparable to the price of a one-room apartment in the near Moscow region.

Who is guilty

“The more complex the system, the more often it will fail,” recalls Victoria Zorina, director of the apartment sales department at Penny Lane Realty. – For example, in the “House on Mosfilmovskaya” the phone does not work either in the parking lot or in the stairwells. And no one is immune from force majeure events in the form of water and electricity outages throughout the entire region.” The Smart Service company that manages the House on Mosfilmovskaya reported that they are working “together with one of the leading operators in the cellular communications market to install additional equipment that will allow amplification and reception of the signal.”

The majority of experts interviewed by Vedomosti confirmed that system failures occur in many new Moscow buildings, including high-tech ones. “The problem with cellular communications in the elevator and parking lot is systemic; I don’t know even a single elite residential complex where it has been completely resolved. In some residential and commercial complexes and on the first floors in the lobby area there is no proper coverage,” shares Alexey Averyanov, CEO of Vesco Group.

Maria Litinetskaya, managing partner of Metrium, believes that the issue is the poor quality of work of the contractors. Intellectual content is quite difficult to integrate. In order for everything to function correctly, it is necessary that specialists be involved in the operation, adds Petr Isaev, commercial director of Capital Group.

A smart home system is laid out at the design stage and implemented in stages. Some of these stages occur at a time when residents have already moved into their apartments, he says. When the house comes to life, they implement a resource control system and install programs that allow owners to track costs for electricity, water, and heating. The expert emphasizes that complex systems require time to break in, so it will be possible to fully appreciate all the benefits of a smart home no earlier than six months to a year after receiving the keys.

Averyanov is inclined to explain the problems with communication by the developers’ lack of attention to detail. And also because buyers simply do not demand anything from the developer in this sense. And since there is no request, then why bother? “For many users of underground parking, it goes without saying that there is no connection there. They don't even think about how uncomfortable it is. And it’s comfortable when you don’t have to interrupt a business conversation by driving into a parking lot or entering an elevator. And this is a point that the most insightful developers could focus on,” suggests Averyanov. Donstroy reported that in recent years, strengthening the GSM signal in underground parking lots has been included in projects already at the stage of technical specifications for the design of low-current systems.

Pavel Matveenko, vice president, director of the efficiency department of Leader-invest (at the time of preparation of the article), drew attention to the fact that a smart home is an integral system; installing separate options or elements not related to it (for example, an intercom) can lead to problems with the functioning of these elements: “This happens when equipment is purchased from different manufacturers or there is no open software interface.” Or if the system is initially configured crookedly, good, high-quality equipment cannot correct this, explains Matveenko. At the first stages of project development, Leader-invest creates a base in the form of appropriate software, and then, based on it, begins to integrate equipment.

Adjusted for costs

According to Andrey Solovyov, director of the urban real estate department at Knight Frank, developers currently do not provide for a complete package in their projects; this is an expensive pleasure. Individual elements are being introduced: intercom, light control, energy-saving functions, technologies that can provide comfort in terms of air supply, heat exchange, and reducing noise effects.

“Selling a smart home is a marketing ploy that was used several years ago. All installation, configuration and maintenance costs ultimately fall on the residents. Nowadays, most buyers prefer to pay for the security and smart functions of only their apartment in the required amount, and not for the entire residential complex,” explains Solovyov. According to Zorina, in the first case this means a housing management system from a single device or via the Internet. “I know several owners of expensive houses and apartments who enjoy using this function,” she says.

Averyanov recalls the Copernicus residential complex, whose advertising campaign emphasized smart solutions: “The developer himself installed a “smart home” system in each apartment, but not all individual requests were fully satisfied, and maintenance was expensive. In more than 15 years in the luxury real estate market, I can hardly remember more than five truly smart apartments.”

On the contrary, Zorina believes that smart elements can now be found in almost all new homes in the premium segment. But these are just elements - and mainly in public areas, Litinetskaya emphasizes. Buyers' apartments are turned into smart homes mainly at the finishing stage on the initiative of the owners, and developers have nothing to do with this. In the apartment, according to Litinetskaya, “telemetry and management of utilities are required, including remotely.” All this allows you to control costs and protect against household disasters. A control system for household appliances is being implemented less frequently.

“It is not beneficial for either the developer or the buyer to massively implement and use a complex system - expensive and difficult-to-use engineering, which will ultimately affect the price per square meter,” sums up Leonid Kaprov, senior vice president of Hals-Development. “But the dynamic development of the technology market could radically change the situation in a few years,” he adds.

Isaev considers the very concept of “smart home” to be a relic and archaism: “Today in the premium and business segments this is what they call an integrated unified building management system, which may also include apartment management via the Internet of Things.” It’s just that buyers mean one thing (the coffee maker turns on at seven, the lights turn off at ten, you can see bills on the mobile screen and who’s at the door), and developers mean something else, they provide software that allows you to control air humidity, temperature in the house, elevators, automatically send information about electricity and water consumption to the management company, explains Isaev, but residents will receive everything else for additional money. New technologies are increasingly taking this system beyond the boundaries of an apartment or house - into the city, capturing the transport system, recreational and social infrastructure. “It is through the integration of the smart home system with the surrounding space that it is possible to create a single ecosystem that will form the basis of the smart city concept,” predicts the speaker.

In Leader-invest projects, a smart home is understood as a single ecosystem, one of the main functions of which is an effective and convenient communication channel. When residents need to contact the local community, management company, or city services, they can do this through the smart home interface. In addition, it allows you to manage equipment and utility networks both in an individual apartment and across an entire building or group of buildings, the company describes. The owner can find out that a leak has occurred and the system has turned off the water supply through an application on the phone.

What can be foreseen

“Any development, including spot development, leads to changes in the city’s telecommunications infrastructure. New high-rise buildings are changing the appearance of the city and affecting the radio network of operators. This often explains failures in the operation of mobile networks and, accordingly, various applications and systems,” reminds Georgy Chumburidze, co-owner of the telecommunications infrastructure operator Vertical, to well-intentioned developers.

The good news is that the results of such influence are quite predictable. “Telecommunications companies must know in advance about development plans, including infill ones. Firstly, in order not to incur additional costs when new objects appear. Secondly, they must be ready to provide residents of new houses with high-quality communications and the Internet. Otherwise, it will be necessary, for example, to urgently put into operation several supports for cellular base stations, but this position was not included in the telecom operator’s budget,” says Chumburidze. “Not all developers think that high-quality communications should be planned along with other communications,” the speaker laments.

What should developers do to avoid communication failures in underground parking lots in residential complexes after new facilities have appeared in the area? Averyanov believes that this can also be foreseen at the design stage. “For example, the project should include the installation of a repeater in the parking lot, and provide visitors with at least WiFi in the lobby area. If the problem is known and predictable, why not solve it in advance?” – the expert is surprised. The developer needs to understand what functionality he is going to include in the architecture of a smart home, and find a qualified contractor who has already completed several working projects, recommends Isaev.

And Chumburidze advises buyers of apartments on the upper floors to check with the developer how communication will be ensured. “In high-rise buildings, panel antennas on the roof will not provide good reception; this is possible when indoor antennas are placed inside the house,” he explains.

“In order for a new building to be provided with reliable communications, it is necessary that operators have unhindered and non-discriminatory access (NDA) to the infrastructure of apartment buildings, as well as to the network infrastructure of energy companies for organizing the “last mile.” That is, developers need to provide for the technical possibility of laying communication lines and installing distribution equipment of telecom operators in houses,” recommends Rostelecom representative Valery Kostarev. The issues of regulating income tax, according to him, have been discussed for quite a long time; a draft law on these issues has been submitted to the State Duma.

Why is there no mobile reception in the underground parking lots of expensive houses?