I also live in the country and and cannot get cable or dsl and have to live with 28.8K modem speeds on a 56K modem. I have been looking into satellite internet for a couple of years and am not convinced that it's ready for "prime time" yet. Do a Google Groups search on "satellite internet" and you will see TONS of posts from people complaining about reliability.
A business acquaintence of mine is using it successfully, but he is a networking GENIUS and has the satellite hookup going into a dedicated PC which acts as a router to the rest of his home network. The total up-front cost was significantly more than I can afford to spend. As you investigate make sure you find out all the "hidden" costs.
C Dick's comments about lag are correct, too. In addition to everything else, I use the internet for some lightweight gaming, like "The Sims Online", and the lag introduced by the round trip to and from the satellite (the speed of light is NOT instantaneous) would make the games I play unplayable.
As an alternative, you might want to investigate Verizon's Expressnet. It makes a higher-speed internet connection using a cell phone connected to the computer via USB. Advertised throughput rates are 144Kb, but I kind of get the impression that YMMV depending on proximity to a tower that can handle Expressnet, and how many other local users are online. The big problem is finding someone at Verizon that really has a clue about this product. Another business acquiantence of mine tried this out and tells me that it works. His biggest problem was getting Verizon to supply the correct USB cable for his phone.
