I have Satellite via AOL, and it work very well for what it is supposed to do.
I average 650-750 kbps DL over 250-300 hours a month for $43.90
upload is around 28-30kbps via phoneline (since it's oneway on the phone line compression makes it around 60-70kbps) Don't like AOL? just minmize it and run whatever browser you choose.
avoid regular DPC (direcway) the FAP (speed limiter) billing problems, third party "support" makes it almost worthless. Repackaged DPC (AOL,Earthlink, etc. ) works pretty well with no FAP, or usage limits
Now the bad stuff
Ping time is 5-700ms. No good for gaming
2 way sat. (no phone line is still in the PAY FOR BETA TESTING stage (still a lot of problems) and too expensive ($700+60/70 amonth)and doubles ping time.
some weather related outages (heavy rain or slush on the dish may cause a brief loss of signal)
some slowdowns at busy times of day (this is not an AOL problem, but a problem at DPC. ~the Satellite can only handle 12MBPS per channel/per transponder/per Satellite) not really a problem for me
Given a choice I would first go with a good cable system (fastest, cheapest), or DSL (twice satellite speed, midprice)
then Sat.
Any of these choices, relies on a quality provider to make it work well. If you only have qwest (dsl) or AT&T (cable) get Sat. (or just shoot yourself) if you get say roadrunner of hawaii. YOU are the MAN! (really good service there
)