Highland Council exploring if Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starlink satellite system could help connect communities in a major emergency
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Councillors attended a recent briefing on resilience –how the council plans to respond to significant emergency events.
Officers said that, in the event of a communications blackout, billionaire businessman Mr Musk’s satellite internet constellation could offer a solution.
Highland councillor Matthew Reiss suggested emergency planning has come sharply into focus following recent events in Ukraine.
He said the council was showing “good sense” by thinking ahead.
A council spokesman said SpaceX’s Starlink system could be used in the event of a power outage.
“It uses thousands of small satellites in low earth orbit to provide satellite internet access,” he said.
Starlink uses constellations of satellites less than 2000km from the ground. By contrast, geostationary satellite systems orbit 36,000km from the surface of the earth.
Starlink is able to offer faster and higher capacity internet than established systems and the council believes it could be particularly useful if a storm – like those last winter – takes out the telecommunications infrastructure.
“The Starlink satellite system could offer an extra layer of resilience,” the spokesman said. “So long as a terminal on the ground is provided with power, it should be possible for internet connectivity to be established.”
Cllr Reiss, a former police chief, said the idea is not as far fetched as it might sound.
“In major incidents, communications are always the first thing that the different agencies rely on,” he said. “If they fail, it causes significant problems because agencies find it difficult to plan an effective response.”
Highland Council’s resilience meeting is thought to have reflected on a range of local emergencies, to help plan their responses.
One such event goes back 10 years, when thieves damaged a subsea fibre optic cable in Lochcarron in Wester Ross – causing a huge communications blackout.
More than 10,000 people lost phone and broadband services, and 10 communities also lost their access to the 999 emergency service.
“If communication services go down the police will try to get the message out by any other means necessary,” Cllr Reiss said.
“On occasions they will station police cars in key community areas to reassure people that there’s a police presence.
“If people are well informed, they can generally tolerate and prepare for any disruption. In the Highlands and Islands we tend to cope with that better than in cities, because we’re more used to natural emergencies.”
Mr Reiss said resilience is “ultimately about common sense”.
Highland Council emphasised that Starlink is not yet part of any official resilience planning. Nor has it been costed or any approach made.
“This is an emerging technology which brings potential benefits for emergency responders and communities alike, but it is in early days of development,” the spokesman said.
“However, we are considering the opportunities and constraints and sharing information within resilience partnership forums to determine if Starlink could be of practical benefit to emergency responders in the Highlands.”
Mr Reiss suggested that in these turbulent times, it pays to think ahead.
“A year or even a few months ago most people might have thought this was a bit OTT,” he said. “But given what Putin has done in the Ukraine and some of the rhetoric around that, it’s not really pie in the sky – excuse the pun.
“I think we should feel reassured that Highland Council is actively working on its resilience plans.”
