I was about ready to go for the Starband system until I discovered that although I did not plan to pay by credit card the company required a credit card number. A little more investigation revealed that the (one year minimum) contract did not guarantee any performance whatsoever. You could be connected at 300 baud and still be bound to the one-year contract. My suspicion was that a certain number of customers had been unhappy with the service (which in my case would have cost about $100 per month for internet and TV combined) and the credit card number was required to insure the company got paid whether the service was satisfactory or not. Internet connection only was not an available option. A little more investigation revealed that only about half of the users would recommend the service, so I decided to stick with a dial-up connection. The idea of being forced to give a credit card number when paying cash didn't impress me and I don't think it's a good idea to deal with companies that require this.