Web interfaces allow access from any suitably equipped computer. Disabled students can take part in a laboratory from their room. Subject to safety precautions, access to labs may be 24 hours. Expensive equipment can be shared between many universities. No university can afford to buy all the equipment it would like and this kind of technology opens up access to teaching equipment they could not otherwise afford.
Sharing makes upgrades cheaper.
Remote labs use real equipment so are not constrained to a model, like simulators because pieces of remote equipment can be moved around for different situations. Equipment can be used for student projects. The greatest challenge in constructing a remote lab is the user interface. Several groups have remote robots that are difficult to control because there is inadequate feedback on where the robot is and what it is doing. This is understandable since the aim of most projects is to test whether remote manipulation works, not to design a teaching user interface.