The geosynchronous ones are 35,786 km above the equator. Actual paths are longer due to the user being north or south of the equator and also often to the east or west of the satellite.
About 1,000–1,400 ms latency for the total round-trip time (RTT). So the conventional protocols don't work properly. I suppose UDP in theory less of a problem.
Out of order packet acknowledgement is used in some schemes, basically a proxy server in the modem:
ONE scheme
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfor...nhancing_proxy
There are quite a few incompatible systems still in use and staggeringly some are not encrypted! Obviously you
need an X37 or spy satellite to monitor the users uplink, unless you are near the ISP Earth Station with a big dish. The downlink to
all the users is easily monitored. Snowdon's revelations on the general level of interception were not new.
I expect HTTPS over satellite isn't any more secure than using a public WiFi point with malware on it. Disclaimer. I used to work for an ISP that provided three different kinds of satellite internet while I worked there. I evaluated stuff. We also did cable broadband protocols over terrestrial microwave links. That's very secure, so as to stop people on real cables hacking or getting free service.
If you think a "burner" phone is typical criminal & spy thing, imagine a "burner" satellite internet connection with dish in a shed with a plastic roof. The extra bits for the uplink transmitter (ODU) are obvious compared to a regular TV reception (TVRO). Then imagine that connected to a fake phone mast intercepting and passing on traffic to the real phone mast and the clandestine satellite link. Quite a bug.