"Good" is a relative answer. It is better than no access is the best way to put it.
Even with large fixed ground stations you are stuck with the high latency caused by having to go all the way to the satellite and back. So even the very best satellite is slow but it does work for applications that can tolerate the latency.
Portable satellite is a long way off. The only methods most companies offer is over the sat phones. This is very low bandwidth so in addition to the high latency it takes forever to load. It is best used for text based stuff like email. The last one I used only ran 56k down and even less up. You also didn't dare move the radio/phone
Portable dish type ground stations do exist but it really depends on the location on these. Some you must have permits to setup or you must have a license of some type. Mostly government wanting their money. These are mostly vehicle mounted systems since you still need something fairly sturdy to mount the dish to and prevent it from moving around.
Is satellite broadband any good? I'm interested in NewSat since I tend to travel a lot as well and so I'm looking for something portable. And no, I'm not looking for a phone.

Chowhound
Comic Vine
GameFAQs
GameSpot
Giant Bomb
TechRepublic