Moved from GQ to IMHO.
samclem, Moderator
No cable here.
I already get 1.5 Mbps on my aircard. Hughes net would not be much of an improvement.
This here’s what’s known as being stuck between a rock and a hard place.
I have Hughes.net and am going to drop it and just use an air card.
There is a real limit to the amount of data you can down load. Forget streaming anything. Once you go over the limit, they throttle the connection back to about 14k for 24 hours.
My parents couldn’t get AT&T DSL because they were too far out in the country.
They got suddenlink.net it provides telephone and DSL for them. Works really well.
The OP mentioned Texas. I checked and Suddenlink covers that state.
http://suddenlinkfyi.com/states/tx/
enter address here to check availability
Thanks for the link, but not available at my location.
Check for WISPs in your area: http://www.wispdirectory.com/index.php?option=com_mtree&task=listcats&cat_id=3
Thanks! I found a place and emailed them for info! 
We went from Hughesnet to a USB wireless modem from Millenicom. It’s a little faster than Hughesnet, cheaper and more consistent. It’s still only around 1 Mbps though in reality
I got a reply from the one in my area. Speed is about 1 Mbps. I already get that more than with my aircard.
I very much appreciate the suggestions! I guess I either need to move or wait for civilization to find me.
Does the small town near you have DSL? If so, how much would it cost to lay and hook up a fibre-optic cable from there to you? I’m assuming you can lay it on telegraph poles rather than have to bury it underground.
I know it’s available in the small town I’ll research it.
Your wireless card may be your best option, but it might be a matter of location. My parents did dial up (ugh), satellite (double-ugh), then finally got a Verizon Hot-Spot card which can run up to 5 computers on house wifi. Because it is located wherever we want it to be we found a sweet spot in the living room that faces town and they get pretty good speeds.
In any event separating the card from the computer may help. And the costs are reasonable. They even upgraded to the 4G card recently in anticipation that service will arrive this year where they live.
EUREKA! I may have found one… my old friend Internet America, my first ISP. Will report. 
Is cable an option? That’s obviously the direct competitor to DirecTV, and if you like the DirecTV service you’d have to subscribe to cable just for the internet - which is likely to be more expensive than having a TV+internet bundle.
Of course if the local cable provider doesn’t service your area, that’s of no help, sorry.
Just something to note because I have customers who have run into this
http://www.wildblue.com/customers/data-allowance-policy
almost all sattelite ISP’s have something like this. For casual use…no biggie, netflix via sattelite becomes a nightmare.
No cable in my area.
Internet America has towers of some kind, so I’m guessing it’s a kind of WiMAX thing. I’m going to talk to them. They also have NO data limits.
They look to be a WISP similar to the others I posted, so you should be okay. WiMAX is just one of the standards that can be used for wireless internet (WiMAX is a licensed wireless using licensed radio spectrum, whereas other options, such as offerings from equipment manufacturers Alvarion, Ubiquiti, or Microtek use unlicensed 900MHz, 2.4GHz, or 5.8GHz spectrum). They all work based on a tower or other high point having an access point on it and the end user having an antenna pointed at it. It works similar to cellular service in layout and implementation.
Just kind of a heads up so you know you might have more options in your area if one doesn’t seem to fit your needs.
Markm, I didn’t find Internet America through that WISP search link you posted, just a general google search. They appear to be the only viable option in my area with reasonable speeds. Hughes net and WildBlue were all slower than my aircard. .