I've had Wildblue since November, and for the most part it has been reliable. I have the ValuePak, which costs me $49.95/month. I paid $299 for the equipment, and it was installed free by my local NRTC. I guess when it's installed by a Wildblue affiliate, they do charge for installations.
Coming from 24kb/sec downloads on my dialup, this has been quite an improvement. I average around 480kb download on a bad day to 530kb on a good day/low traffic time. My downloads have been as low as 26kb, but I think it was due to my modem (which was replaced in December). I rarely have upload speeds less than 100 kb now.
It's a little hard to get used to the long delay when I click on the "enter" button, and when the page actually comes back and loads completely. I think on regular surfing on pages with lots of text, it isn't a whole lot quicker than my dialup was from start to finish. But when the pages have lots of pictures (like Ebay or maybe checking radar on the weather sites), it will blow dialup out of the water.
I also installed a wireless Netgear router the other day so I'm ready for the day when I get my laptop. I'd really like to end my work day by being able to sit out on the deck, reading my emails and being able to enjoy nature at the same time.