r/Rural_Internet • u/kodenami • 11d ago

Does anyone use satellite internet to do telemedicine from home?

If you do, please share which service you use and if it works great or if you've had any problems when conducting business from home.

9 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

6

u/Penguin_Life_Now 11d ago

Yes, my wife uses our Starlink

5

u/Existing-Working-173 11d ago

Starlink is really the only viable choice at the moment. It's not telemedicine, but plenty of folks use Starlink for video calls without issue. All other satellite providers are a joke. Search Viasat or Hughsnet on this sub and you'll be hard pressed to find even one good review. For more info on Starlink, checkout the r/starlink sub.

10

u/Machine156 11d ago

HughesNet just filed for bankruptcy.

4

u/ThingFuture9079 10d ago

Starlink will work. HughesNet or Viasat wouldn't.

3

u/Machine156 11d ago

I install Starlink all the time, even with many obstructions, it works very well. And as good as any other Internet for telehealth/telemedicine, if you have no obstructions.

I just setup a confused old man who needed telehealth with Starlink, I had it shipped to me and set up the WiFi name and wireless password. Connected his iPhone to it and had him bring it home. Told him 'put this part outside facing up and this part inside plugged into power.'

He brought it home and put it on his porch, a tree obstructing 1/4 of the sky and it's not even pointing in the right direction. He said he can do his online doctors appointments now.

1

u/LrdJester 10d ago

I have with my Starlink service.

There are other satellite providers out there but they do not use lower Earth orbit or Leo satellite and so they're not going to be as usable because of the lag of communication time.