Why does the VPN work on MTS home internet but not on mobile?

These are different networks. On mobile, traffic goes through the provider's shared gateway, the packet size is smaller, and the route changes when switching between towers. A connection that goes through on wired may fail to establish on a cellular network.

What should I do first?

Change the location in the app. This resolves most cases and takes a few seconds.

The VPN drops when I'm riding the metro or in a car — is that normal?

Yes, it's a result of switching between base stations: the external address changes and the session drops. Once you stop, the connection usually recovers on its own or after reconnecting.

My data allowance has run out — will the VPN work?

Technically the tunnel may come up, but at throttled speed it's practically impossible to use. Check your remaining data in the provider's account dashboard.

Do you have statistics on VPN performance on the MTS network?

Not yet. We don't publish figures we haven't measured. The methodology for future measurements is described on the page “How we test VPN performance in Russia”.

VPN for MTS — How It Works and What to Do When There Are Problems

MTS is one of the largest providers in Russia: it has both a mobile network and home internet. This matters for our topic, because a VPN behaves differently on each, and “not working on MTS” can mean two completely different situations.

Short answer

If the VPN won't connect on MTS mobile internet, start by changing the location in the app — this resolves most cases. If the problem is on MTS home internet, check the router and network settings: the causes there are usually different.

Mobile network and home internet are different conditions

MTS has both products, and the traffic path on each is set up differently.

Mobile internet. Subscribers get addresses from an internal range and reach the outside through the provider's shared gateway. Hundreds of devices share a single external address, the packet size is smaller than on wired, and as you move the base station changes — and the route changes with it.
Home internet. A wired connection is more stable: the route doesn't change, the MTU is larger, and the session isn't dropped by switching between towers. In return, the home router with its own settings comes into play.

Hence a practical rule: before looking for the cause, determine which network it fails on. Switch from Wi-Fi to mobile internet and back — it takes five seconds and immediately narrows things down.

Why a connection may fail to establish on mobile internet

The location doesn't get through. A specific server may not be accepted by the network, while nearby ones work.
Base station change. On the move, the device switches between towers, the external address changes, and the established session drops.
Battery saving. The system unloads the background app, and the VPN disconnects for no visible reason.
The data allowance has run out. On some plans, once the allowance is used up the speed is throttled to levels where the tunnel technically comes up but is impossible to use.

What to try, in order

Change the location in the app. The most effective step: if a specific server doesn't get through the provider's network, a nearby one usually does.
Check the internet without VPN. Open any site with the VPN turned off. If it doesn't open either, the VPN isn't the problem: you've run out of plan data, there's no signal, or there's an issue on the network's side.
Check the list of VPN profiles in your device settings. A leftover configuration from another service intercepts traffic and looks like a failure of your current app.
Reconnect instead of waiting. The client may be holding a dead connection while treating it as alive.
Remove battery-saver and data-saver restrictions for the app — especially on Android.
Restart the device if the routes are stuck.

Separately about MTS home internet

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If the app won't connect on a home connection but works on mobile, the cause is almost always local:

a router with filtering or parental controls enabled;
custom DNS settings in the router;
a second VPN configured on the router itself;
outdated router firmware — a rare but occasional cause of drops.

It's easy to check: connect the same device to mobile internet. If everything works there, deal with the router, not the app.

Does VolnaLink work for MTS subscribers

We have apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, TVs, and browser extensions, and they aren't tied to any specific provider — the service doesn't distinguish whose SIM card you have. You can try it free for 8 hours with no card and test it on your own connection.

Why there are no percentages or charts here

You won't find a number of tests, a success rate, or an average connection time in this article. The reason is simple: we haven't measured them yet, and we won't make such figures up — neither about our own service nor about others.

We're preparing our own monitoring separately: exactly how we'll measure it is described on the page “How we test VPN performance in Russia”. Once enough measurements accumulate, the results will appear in monitoring and in this article in place of this paragraph.

If nothing helped

Write to support — no registration is needed for that. To keep the process short, include your provider, city, connection type (mobile or home), app version, and selected location right away. With this information the issue gets resolved in minutes instead of hours.

VPN for MTS