QUOTE(r_towle @ Jan 13 2010, 08:34 PM)

56k modem is faster than sattelite.
Rich
Not true at all in my experience. I had a predecessor service (DirecPC/DirecWay) for several years before we could get any sort of DSL, Cable or cellular connectivity here. The download speeds were quite fast, easily comparable to ADSL but as mentioned above the latency is huge and the upload speed is a fraction of download similar (but worse) to ADSL.
It was spendy - I had a business account with no bandwidth limits and static IP's. Maybe that's the difference.
Then got DSL from PacBell which sucked royally; we are too far from the switch and it went up and down like a yo-yo.
Now I have Time Warner cable and it is super fast (often >10Mbits/sec), rock solid and way cheaper.
If you can get a cell signal check into the 3G USB modems. We use them for our road warriors at work and they work well; about $60/month but Verizon and AT&T both have 5GB/month limits before overage fees start.