Satellite Recommendations, Advice?

[nikster]

I am trying to avoid it but I might have to use Satellite for internet access in my house on the mountain.

I have heard many horror stories, and I have two neighbors who are very unhappy Satellite customers, so I wanted some advice.

The main important thing for me is reliability. I need the service to work 24/7 as I work on the internet and nothing is more embarassing than a sudden disconnect when chatting with a client. I also have a GPRS backup for this purpose, but still.

Second is speed - it needs to be fast. Short lag time would be best, but I know that's not possible, lag time is going to be horrible with Thailand + Satellite lag combining into one huge giant lag.

I see that TOT has plans for business and home - is business more reliable? Or why is it more expensive?

Is 2048/1024 actually that fast? Do I get 200KB/s downloads with that? Does it "feel" faster than normal 1024 DSL?

Are there any Satellite providers from other countries, like Singapore or something like that, which are not subject to the Thai international gateway limitations (and occasional hiccups from the censorship-servers)?

Edited September 5, 2006 by nikster