Cell towers usually aren't so far that horizon is part of the picture and they are usually pretty high. Line of sight can often be attained without too much height. At microwave frequencies antennas can be quite small and exhibit lots of gain. People have made very high gain, very directional antennas out of Pringle's cans. The investment required to go from no bars to four bars can be next to nothing...
Sure, but try to day-trade the E-mini S&P 500 via a satellite internet connection in the center of Australia, for example, and we will talk some more about the 4 bars thing
No way I would ever go back to satellite (Hughes) for day trading. They cut you out for bandwidth hogging without warning. Sky finicky. I'd rather get data cell plan.
Cantenna's are pretty picky... He says the nearest cell tower is 10K (6.25 miles) away. Since his will be most likely need to be mounted on a tower outside, exposed to wind, the cantenna will need to be pretty stable to stay in the optimal position. Omni-directional or dishes are probably the best solutions unless he prefers futzing with the cantenna's positioning all the time. That said, 3G has pretty abysmal data rates, even 1/2 mile away with line-of-sight... His options are between bad and worse unless (1) he's able to get an affordable microwave link to the nearest exchange, or (2) moves out of the boonies...
With so much money at stake think of it as a business plan ala restaurants LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION move
I have satellite internet and I can say that yeah, it's not that good for online gaming, but trading hasn't been an issue for me at all. whenever i try to play a lot of music, game or open up a long youtube video someone sends me I remember i am using satellite, but for the typical stuff it's not bad. I have internet service from Calera ( http://www.calera.biz ) which is better than what I used to have, I wonder if they service Europe too ?