(USA Relevant)

Not having heard of Hughesnet before, when I came across the company, I decided to do a little research. In a nutshell, they are a satellite comms ISP. If you live, or work, where ADSL, cable or other ‘normal’ broadband services are not yet available, you are probably currently restricted to dial up services, which are painfully slow.
Two-way Satellite Internet services use a modem and dish to provide a high speed connection to the internet. In the past, satellite connections were often only one way, which meant you still needed to create a dial up connection, to actually send any data. This was inconvenient (tying up a phone line from voice calls), cumbersome (two connections needed to be made each time), expensive (paying twice over for one connection!) and slow, as all uploads were done via the phone line, limiting you to around 51.2 Kbits per second (unless you actually live IN your phone exchange ).
Luckily, Hughes Net offer a range of packages that all involve two way comms, with pretty reasonable prices. If I lived over in America, and had a clear view of the southern sky, I’d be applying today! Though having said that, there do appear to be more than 800,000 users not based in America, so I’d better check which direction we can place a dish on our roof safely Anyway, the FAQ section is fairly comprehensive over there, so check it out now.