Satellite Internet is the predecessor to the current mobile broadband offered by many of the broadband providers across the world. They rely upon geostationary satellites that relay the broadband data from a satellite company to the customer, and then back again. Unfortunately, it is also the most expensive way of gaining broadband Internet access. In some extremely rural areas it may be the only option other than a cellular broadband connection. One of the major pitfalls associated with satellite Internet is the fact that there are significant latency issues due to the fact that the signal must travel to an altitude of 22+ miles above the sea to a satellite in orbit and then back down to earth again. This causes delays ranging from 500 ms to 900 ms, which makes this type of connection fairly unreliable for individuals who need a real-time broadband connection. If you simply need a broadband connection for access to e-mail and website browsing, the latency issues are barely noticeable, but if you are looking to stream data you could be in for a rude awakening.
The other problem with most satellite broadband providers is that most of them operate with a FAP, otherwise known as a Fair Access Policy. Basically this throttles the connection of the customer down to dial-up rates after they have hit a certain invisible wall that is determined by the company, usually around 200 MB a day. This can make certain bandwidth-intensive activities such as streaming live data completely impossible for rural customers relying on a satellite connection.