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Imagine the military setting up an internet base station and releasing remote controlled drones for surveillance or military operations. Having satellite based

Imagine the military setting up an internet base station and releasing remote controlled drones for surveillance or military operations. Having satellite based high speed internet would be a game changer for remote locations. Imagine being able to conduct a robot controller surgery in Africa, by a doctor in the US. Currently, not possible, but with high speed satellite based internet, it could be. Imagine an electrical engineer being able to help his colleagues in Africa, with specific issue, over VR or Video calls, enabled by Satellite based internet. I can see a number of possibilities and opportunities.

qayxc 6y ago
> Imagine being able to conduct a robot controller surgery in Africa, by a doctor in the US. Highly unlikely for many reasons: latency too high, cost of equipment way too high, only very few hospitals are even equipped for remote surgery even in the West, let alone underdeveloped countries... > Imagine an electrical engineer being able to help his colleagues in Africa That's already possible even without satellite-based internet and doesn't require it at all. The only point I agree with is the military - surveillance and remote controlled drones could benefit from greatly from low-latency high-bandwidth satellite internet.
- adventured 6y ago
  > only very few hospitals are even equipped for remote surgery even in the West, let alone underdeveloped countries... You're talking about today, which is the lowest potential time scenario. How about the time frame of 15-20 years from now? It'll take years just to fully build out Starlink's constellation, then many more years to fully spread its use. Remote surgery will continue to expand, becoming increasingly common, and the prices will come down. As that process unfolds, you will increasingly see the major robotic-assisted surgery companies donate (or otherwise massively subsidize) equipment to poorer nations, exactly as is done with very expensive drugs now. Also, while today robotic-assisted surgery costs are very high (dominated by companies like Intuitive or Stryker), China and others will eventually fully knock down that door and flood the market with lower cost systems that are 85% good enough and will become very widely used. It's also more likely that it'll be highly skilled doctors in one less developed nation doing work in another less developed nation. That will help keep the costs down more than the parent's example. US doctors will likely do most of their remote work within the US (other than charitable work), where they can command far higher fees.
- kumarvvr 6y ago
  >That's already possible even without satellite-based internet and doesn't require it at all. Maybe in developed countries. In India, most Power Plant construction sites don't even have dial-up internet. There are a lot of projects going on in a lot of remote places, where there is simply no infrastructure available for internet. StarLink could be rented for a while and perhaps used after that. There is tremendous potential for such a service.
  - Thlom 6y ago
    But most of this is already being done with existing satellite services. Starlink is cool and better than existing providers in many respects, but it's not a total game changer.

qayxc 6y ago

> Imagine being able to conduct a robot controller surgery in Africa, by a doctor in the US. Highly unlikely for many reasons: latency too high, cost of equipment way too high, only very few hospitals are even equipped for remote surgery even in the West, let alone underdeveloped countries... > Imagine an electrical engineer being able to help his colleagues in Africa That's already possible even without satellite-based internet and doesn't require it at all. The only point I agree with is the military - surveillance and remote controlled drones could benefit from greatly from low-latency high-bandwidth satellite internet.

adventured 6y ago
> only very few hospitals are even equipped for remote surgery even in the West, let alone underdeveloped countries... You're talking about today, which is the lowest potential time scenario. How about the time frame of 15-20 years from now? It'll take years just to fully build out Starlink's constellation, then many more years to fully spread its use. Remote surgery will continue to expand, becoming increasingly common, and the prices will come down. As that process unfolds, you will increasingly see the major robotic-assisted surgery companies donate (or otherwise massively subsidize) equipment to poorer nations, exactly as is done with very expensive drugs now. Also, while today robotic-assisted surgery costs are very high (dominated by companies like Intuitive or Stryker), China and others will eventually fully knock down that door and flood the market with lower cost systems that are 85% good enough and will become very widely used. It's also more likely that it'll be highly skilled doctors in one less developed nation doing work in another less developed nation. That will help keep the costs down more than the parent's example. US doctors will likely do most of their remote work within the US (other than charitable work), where they can command far higher fees.
kumarvvr 6y ago
>That's already possible even without satellite-based internet and doesn't require it at all. Maybe in developed countries. In India, most Power Plant construction sites don't even have dial-up internet. There are a lot of projects going on in a lot of remote places, where there is simply no infrastructure available for internet. StarLink could be rented for a while and perhaps used after that. There is tremendous potential for such a service.
- Thlom 6y ago
  But most of this is already being done with existing satellite services. Starlink is cool and better than existing providers in many respects, but it's not a total game changer.