Sat vs cable vs dial up
OK... most major points covered well.... One MAJOR issue with Sat. technology is that you cannot use it for a number of things because of its technological drawbacks. For one, you cannot use Sat. for playing games online, video confrencing, or other situations where you would need a "live" connection".
Cable... not that I would reccomend this, but if you live close to your neighbors (i.e. apartment or townhouse) you could "share" a connection. A lot of people do this in northern VA in Condo complexes by settign up a wireless network and sharing the cost.
Final option... your connection speed is determined by a couple of things... ISP provider, computer, phone line quality, etc. I use to connect at 29.8 KBPS on a HP computer, when I upgraded to a new computer I magically sped up to 48.8 KBPS (same phoen outlet, same provider, same phone #). Now I use Earthlink dial up with an accelorator that speed me up 3 to 4 times faster for "surfing" the net and I am quite happy when compared to teh DSL line I use to have before I moved down here. Keep in mind that the accelorator really isnt speeding up your actual speed, just compressing, caching, and some other stuff. However, it satisfies my needs.
Best of luck.