Please lodge a ticket with Fairphone, Alkaris. Samsung was also going to have some devices blocked but they liaised with the providers and updated their software to avoid it. Fairphone intervening is the only hope at this stage, Iāll wager
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Thanks for all your work, and your help here, mate. Can you give me the link to lodge a ticket with fairphone? I should be able to find it but coginitive impairement is kiling me here.
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No worries at all, Paul. Here is the link. You will need your IMEI and I think your proof of purchase: https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
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Can you give me me IMEI and proof of purchase? Bwahahaha. Iām sure Iāll find em. TYVM. 
Iām with Aussie Broadband too. Usually their support team is fantastic, but they have been super unhelpful when it comes to providing any paths of recourse outside of āOptus said this, thereās nothing we can doā.
Aussie Broadband says they canāt escalate the case further with Optus, but when I call Optus directly they give the same copy-paste response and say I canāt escalate the case past the first level of support because Iām not an Optus customer! So Aussie canāt escalate with Optus, and I canāt escalate with Optus, so thereās no direct consumer escalation path at all!
Have reached out to Fairphone support and created a ticket, praying they can help. My phone successfully made a 000 call earlier this year (wasnāt testing it, genuinely needed emergency services), so itās maddening to hear 4 separate support teams say āthereās nothing we can doā (AussieBB L1 support, L2 support and complaints department, and Optus L1 support) while quoting a copy-pasted response from Optus.
They keep saying this or some almost-verbatim minor variation:
To keep customers safe, phones must support Triple Zero (000) calling over 4G (using VoLTE) in the event of an emergency. This is a legal requirement for all phones sold in Australia. Older 3G handsets, as well as some newer 4G/5G handsets (including those purchased overseas or from a retailer selling imported phones), do not meet these standards.
Heck, level 1 Optus support straight up lied to me and said that the 000 block list was from the Australian government directly, which - since blocks vary between network operators - is provably false? Unless they were internally mandating it on a per-network basis, but that feels incredibly unlikely.
Havenāt contacted the TIO yet but working on it.
I absolutely adore my Fairphone 5, itās my favourite bit of tech Iāve ever purchased, closely followed by my System76 laptop. I care about repairability and ethics in the tech space, and there are no valid competitors available within Australia. I pray that Fairphone can figure this out because I just want to keep using my Fairphone 5 for the 10 years of updates I was promised, or at least the 5 years of my extended warranty. I take very good care of my devices, I donāt want to need to replace one of my favourites, which I bought with sustainability and ethics in mind, with some other device to forces me to give money to companies perpetuating suffering and environmental turmoil that I hope will be eliminated or at very least significantly tempered within my lifetime. I gave Fairphone my money because I knew in their hands it would make the world a better place than in someone elseās, and this whole situation is breaking my heart.
Anyway, best of luck everyone. I pray Fairphone will do something 
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Yes, I have! It worked perfectly fine! Post 3G shutdown there have been at least three incidents, once of which was within the last 3 months, where I needed to call emergency services (I live in the heart of the CBD on a busy street, things are eventful here).
All calls:
- Connected straight away
- Were recognized as emergency number calls on my Fairphone 5 - which was reflected in the emergency number specific UI (like a red banner or background from memory)
- Were successfully rerouted to the requested department by the operator. Iāve needed both Ambulance and Police on difference occasions, but donāt recall any time I needed Fire department.
- Had clear audio
- Worked fine every time, reliably. They connected immediately and sounded consistently clear.
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Get your local federal MP involved.
The federal government created the Telecommunications (Emergency Call Service) Amendment Determination 2024 (No. 1) that caused this issue.
They created it without adequate procedural fairness so that telcos can block your service simply by asserting incompatibility, and with no requirement that they show how or why it is incompatible.
When the only evidence available (Android 15, successful ad hoc 000 calling) suggests the phone meets the requirements, and households are being told to junk equipment worth thousands of dollars that is to all appearances perfectly adequate, the telcos should be required to demonstrate what tests have failed. Basic procedural fairness.
I donāt expect the TIO will give you that, because when it comes down to legalities the telcos can hide behind the fact weāve all signed service agreements that require us to use an approved device, and FP5 is not on that list. It will require MP intervention on the basis of natural justice, not law.
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Thank you, everyone, for contributing to the discussion. Itās great to see people willing to get involved.
Iāve just contacted my MP, Madonna Jarrett, along the excellent lines suggested by IainM, emphasising the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, the e-waste angle, and the repairability and very long-term software support offered by Fairphone.
Iām really hoping we hear from Fairphone themselves before the blocks start.
In the end I bought an A$80 WiFi modem from Telstra (4GX WiFi plus 2 - it came with 10gb data).
That worked well and gave me confidence I would have a reliable connection for the rest of our trip.
3 days later, our host is driving us back to Surrey hills from the mornington peninsula, and I get an SMS ping. I check the phone and both my UK EE SIM and the esim.sm eSIM are connected. That was 2 days ago and theyāve stayed live.
So weirdly, last Sunday when my FP5 IMEI was checked at the phone shop last week, came up as blocked, now appears to be unblocked! The network the esim.sm is on is YES OPTUS.
We are just about to fly to Hobart. Iāll see if anything changes if the SIM uses a different Telco.
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Optusā next round of blocking under the new regulations wonāt start until a few days into March, I believe, and I think phones will be reported as blocked on the checker if they are to be blocked, as well as if they are currently blocked on the Telstra network. Good to have the info, though!
I bit the bullet and bought a samsung. I bet fairphone fix it within days of me spending $1700. 
My MP, Madonna Jarrett, got back to me. The lack of substance is typical of major party MPsā correspondence, unfortunately:
"Thank you for contacting our office in relation to the 3G network shutdown affecting 5G devices. I understand that this has been a cause for frustration for a substantial number of Australians and Brisbane locals.
The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman could be a useful body to contact to express your concern about the limited warning time offered prior to the shutdown of the network.
They can be reached through their website at www.tio.com.au/complaints or by phone at 1800 062 058."
Iāve replied with an attempt to press them to address Optusā presumption that devices are incompatible.
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I went through the Optus complaints process. With some some checking, they said I had to update my operating system to Android 14 or Android 15.
Iām still trying to get Optus to update their list of blocked devices so Fairphone 5 5G can be used after 10/03/2026. Since the phones get software updates until 2031, Iām asking for this confirmation or for $1 200 in compensation.
They seem to be willing to check with their management when they hear ācompensation.ā Hopefully we can get a resolution soon.
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Thatās great, fpuseraus! I think Iāll need to escalate from āMooseā to Optus, as well. The fact that both support departments are mentioning the OS version is kind of interesting, and makes it a lot harder for them to justify the block on their own terms, you would think!
Have you filed a support ticket with Fairphone themselves, as well?
Still nothing further from Moose and nothing at all from Fairphone for me, unfortunately, but Iāll keep everyone posted.
Sorry for the double post, but has anyone had a block notification from Vodafone? Thereās an ominous warning message on some of their providersā websites
Hi All, I was overseas of late and in late January or early February I got the genetic message from Optus. Saying my FP5 would be block on the 10th March and I need to upgrade to a ācompatibleā device.
I little history from me, I called Optus back in 2024 and got sms and email confirming my phone would not be blocked and it can make emergency calls.
Since returning home Iāve called Optus, spoken to 3 different people as it has been escalated. Level 1 person feed me lies about the government having a block list and Optus had to compile. Level 2 person couldnāt answer why a newish phone with 4G/5G/VoLte captivity, that I have been able to make a legitimately ā000ā call from recently, was being blocked? Nor could the level 3 person, who hung up on me while transferring to a level 4 (they didnāt call me back) 
. Round two calling Optus, a level 4 person pass on a message, I got told I need to update my software and āmy phone wonāt get blockedā. I had to end the call to check/update the software, not before I asked them for this in writing, which they texted to me. Iāll call them again when I have time to see if someone can confirm āthey wonāt block my phoneā and āwhy they would be blocking a phones that worksā???
If I canāt get an answer Iāll be logging a complaint with TIO asap.
Iāve had friends with other overseas phones in the same boat, they have signed the partition and Iām encouraging them to lodge complaints and speak with there local members.
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For those that made the Vodafone (AU) leap, is voicemail working for you? My issue is that the incoming call rings for 30 seconds, then dead air. Iāve just spent an inordinate amount of time on Vodafoneās quaint app (login again when I change screens or wait for 5 minutes? Sign me up!) talking to support, and now the issue has been āescalated to level 2ā. A potentially adjacent problem is that when setting up the GSM diversion (using **61*), the phone is responding with āCall forwarding: Connection problem or invalid MMI codeā (which Itās doing for a variety of codes).
That sounds great, Sir_Crispy, even just on the level of getting them to confirm in writing that itās a software matter. Of course, they may be fibbing/out of their depth, but it seems like thatād increase your odds of being compensated, at least.
Iāve just had another lame response from my provider, Moose, and have lodged a complaint with the TIO
I got a similar back and forth with Optus. Good luck on your end.
Slightly more good news!
With the complaints team I didnāt accept that they would block my phone. I had attached a screenshot of the 4G and 5G calling logos, and confirmed Iāve upgraded to Android 15.
I ended up speaking to the manager and we came to the agreement that it is a 5G phone and should work after 10/03/2026. The manager agreed to put that in an email.
They did ask for my IMEI number before sending that email out, so itās more official. Plus the complaints case manager will be double checking itās working with me on 11/03/2026.
I should be getting that email soon. Iāve also asked them to update the blocked device list, so Iām not getting these automated warning emails.
Feels like some common sense is prevailing.
Btw, reading the Fairphone 3G shutdown advice gave me some extra confidence the hardware is capable. Plus checking VoLTE was enabled on my device, (#*#*4636*#*# menu) also helped me confirm I had a solid argument.
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Oh nice!
Iām thinking about how we can leverage any progress we make separately for the benefit of everyone who might be affected.
Iād be happy to post anonymised screenshots of any relevant texts or emails so that others could send them to their providers, for example
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