royrdsjr,
I've had Verizon DSL, Covad DSL, cable internet, Clearwire, Verizon 3G, Xplornet satellite, Hughesnet satellite, ISDN, and POTS dial up.
I'd put satellite just barely above ISDN, subjectively speaking regarding the whole experience- the latency is just terrible.
I have satellite because I do occasionally need to do some large downloads and rsync's.
If I was getting an alternate internet provider just to do some surfing and email when cable was down, I'd just put in dial up POTS.
YMMV, $0.02, etc