Question about Broadband

[matt819]

I'm in rural New England. No cable. No DSL. No radio wireless. Satellite's available but the daily limit/throttle back makes it unfeasible.

So I have a 3G service from a company in California. Very expensive for average speeds of below 1 mbps. I also have mobile broadband from Verizon as a backup (and at additional cost), but the 5 GB/month limit makes that unfeasible as well.

I just checked speed on speedtest.net and the graphic shows me connecting with the server in California.

Here's my question: As I make surf the web, do business, send e-mails, etc., does my computer always connect to the destination site via the ISP, or is the connection direct (or as direct as it would otherwise be if it did not first attempt to make contact with the server in California)? My ping time seems high, varying between 200 and 400 ms.

And does anyone know of any comparable 3G services based in New England?