Satellite Broadband Can Be Vital in Emergencies, Companies Say
In comments on the FCC’s inquiry for its national broadband plan, satellite companies and advocacy groups said satellites can be used for public safety initiatives as well as providing Internet connectivity for rural homes. The “FCC could also encourage service providers to integrate satellite-based communications offerings for public safety users to promote ubiquitous geographic coverage,” said Harlin McEwen, chairman of the Public Safety Spectrum Trust Corporation, in an FCC filing.
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Satellite broadband technology is “critical to users such as those in the emergency response and homeland security, health care, and education sectors,” Iridium said. In addition to reliability that terrestrial communications options may lack during severe weather or other disasters, Iridium said first responders and other government users have “complete control over where and when to deploy terminals and capacity.”
Having this kind of control could be a key factor to getting an entire municipality to embrace satellite broadband technology and its cost, Spacenet said. If satellite broadband is being delivered to libraries, community centers and schools with the speeds and bandwidth they require, when an emergency hits, bandwidth can be redistributed “on demand” to the public safety agencies instantaneously, Spacenet said.
Telemedicine, which includes the use of remote life sign monitoring and remote diagnostics software, could also benefit from a stronger satellite broadband infrastructure, Iridium said. Consultant Anne Linton agreed, saying doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston helped a South Pole physician through a complex surgery via a video chat transmitted over a satellite broadband network. Linton said that if the government decided to help subsidize the cost of technologies like satellite broadband, it could “have a direct and immediate impact on health care delivery by lowering the cost and thus increase the availability of health care to those in remote areas and to underserved populations.”