What The EchoStar/DirecTV Merger Has To Do With Telemedicine

from the yeah,-but-why... dept

Here's a News.com column from a physician begging the government to approve the merger between EchoStar and DirecTV because it will make telemedicine possible. I'm not sure I follow the logic. I do understand the importance of being able to have broadband everywhere for telemedicine. However, I'm not sure why the merger needs to take place for this to happen. Both EchoStar and DirecTV currently offer their broadband data solutions. Why do they need to be combined? I actually don't have anything against the merger, but I'm trying to understand the logic in this article.
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  1. identicon
    John Bartley, 11 Apr 2002 @ 4:42pm

    Echostar/DirecPC broadband

    I've used both of these, and my wife's company has one installed. The upload speed is atrocious, and sometimes the system for no apparant reason stops. This has been verified by the doyen columnist of BYTE, Jerry Pournelle .

    If this doc thinks el cheapo consumer-grade bandwidth is a necessary component of his health care system, well, please don't let me ever fall into his clutches. I'd druther just duct tape my internal organs back into place and take the next Greyhound out to a real surgeon, thankyouverymuch.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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