T-Mobile Home Internet VPN Issues

Users of T-Mobile’s 5G home broadband Internet plan have issues connecting to and staying connected to VPNs. This is not an issue with Harvard’s VPNs or with Cisco AnyConnect, but with the T-Mobile Home Internet service. Unfortunately, FASRC cannot help you resolve this issue as it lies with T-Mobile’s service.

According to posts found on the Internet, T-Mobile is aware of this and has responded to customers that:

The issue is that while 5G can provide broadband level speeds and bandwidth wireless solutions, such as 5G, have a higher tolerance [NOTE: they mean ‘higher incidence’] for “packet loss.”  Packet loss is when individual pieces of data are dropped/lost during transmission.  For most applications this is a minimal issue that 5G speeds may render unnoticeable, but a live connection, such as the AnyConnect VPN or Voice Over IP phone services, will experience connection degradation or be completely disconnected forcing you to reconnect.

This is not an issue MTS can mitigate.  For this reason the only recommended Internet service types are fully wired based connections including DSL, Broadband, Cable, and Fiber Optic services.

This information is current as of the time of this posting: Jan 25, 2024