You have several questions here on somewhat different topics. Internet provider is one and the streaming devices/apps are another.
I’ve had ATT in the past and left them because of cost. Service was fine; rarely any drop of service in my area, Ravenel. No experience with Hughes Net, but I would think by now that signal quality should be similar. All they are doing is providing the internet signal to the house. You have to take that signal and make it usable for WIFI internet/tv inside the house.
This is very important. You want their input signal to come into your house centrally located, because that’s where you’re going to plug it into the modem. If you have it at one end of the house, the wifi signal will be weak on the other end of the house. Just avoid this headache all together and have it in the middle of the house from the beginning.
Your neighbor is doing something different. The only reason to build a 40’ tower is if you were trying to deliver wifi to your whole 3-4 acres of property or to steal wifi from someone else’s unsecured network. That’s just my thoughts; I have no idea what he’d need a 40’ tower erected for today unless he’s using HAM radio, amateur radio, just for giggles. HAM radio is unrelated to internet/streaming.
After you get the internet provider to bring a signal line to the house, what you want to do is buy a quality modem and a router. Some are one combo unit these days. ATT will rent you one or both monthly, but if you go get these at Best Buy and set it up yourself, not paying that rental fee pays for the equipment in about a year or so. The disadvantage to that is that you replace the equipment if it breaks. Yes, sometimes routers break and sometimes they last for ten years. Paying the ATT rental fee, they will come out and troubleshoot their equipment if it stops working. You have to weigh those options and do whatever you feel is in your comfort level. If you own the equipment and have connectivity issues, ATT will not troubleshoot your equipment; they will only verify that their signal coming in is good. To troubleshoot your equipment, you’d need to do your own research (youtube is your friend here), call on a nerdy friend that knows a thing or two about networks, or call a service like Geek Squad.
You want your modem and router centrally located in your house. The wifi signal will get weaker the further it is away from the router. Think of it like driving away from an FM radio station. The station is clear close to the source. The further you drive away from the radio station, the signal gets static-y and eventually gets so weak you can’t hear it any longer. They do make wifi signal repeaters, but you want to avoid those if you can. Most homes don’t need them. They work, but its just another device that you have to buy and setup. That covers the signal in and wifi through the house.
As far as the TV, it does not matter what brand you go with. When you are getting wifi, you are going to be streaming your television channels through the internet. You can get a smart TV with built in roku or hulu or sling or netflix or youtube or whatever. All of those are software applications (apps) just like smartphones. All they are is software allowing you to view television show/movie content. Some are free, but most are subscription based that you pay for.
You don’t have to have a smart tv with built in apps, although if you’re buying a new tv these days I think all of them are smart now. Some of the most common ways to stream tv is by purchasing a “stick” to plug into the HDMI port in the back of your tv. Firestick is one of the more common ones. Its basically a small device that plugs in to the tv to turn it into a smart tv. It has popular apps built into it already and you can add more to it if you want something specific (different screen savers, special weather apps, whatever). You’ll need one “stick” for every device you want to watch tv on.
It sounds daunting, but its not that bad, I promise. If you can work a smartphone, you can figure out streaming tv. If all this seems like too much, go with ATT and tell them you want all your TVs and laptops/tablets working before they leave the house.
Router:
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/netgear-nighthawk-r7000-ac1900-wifi-router-black/1754208.p?skuId=1754208
Modem:
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/arris-surfboard-32-x-8-docsis-3-0-cable-modem-white/4600801.p?skuId=4600801
Wifi Repeater (if needed) This is a cheap one. Figure out what you need and bump up as needed.
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/netgear-ac750-dual-band-wi-fi-range-extender/6466528.p?skuId=6466528
Firestick
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/amazon-fire-tv-stick-4k-with-alexa-voice-remote-dolby-vision-hd-streaming-media-player-includes-tv-controls-black/6480937.p?skuId=6480937