Hi All, is been a while since my last post, so I have a fair bit to update on. Thank you to all those that have continue to share their experience and findings.
Iāve been working with the TIO and Telstra and came to a resolution. Basically because back in March when they told people to upgrade to a 4G phone with very vague instruction. Checked twice with them from August to October about my FP5, told it would work. Given all this Telstra paid me out for my phone, the temporary Optus SIM I bought and all remaining credit I had. I get to keep the phone and do as I please at this point.
Also Telstra couldnāt tell me if they were even considering changing the network to allow Fair Phone to work on their systems in the future.
Iāve ported my number to Optus, it has been working fine for many weeks.
I also did the IMEI test, told me to check with provider. Texted ā3ā to 3498 and got the message āour records show your device is not a mobile phone and youāll need to get in touch with optusā¦" This message hasnāt changed in the many weeks now that Iāve had a Optus SIM.
I have since received a text message and email from Optus, confirming my phone wonāt be blocked and will be capable of making ā000ā call. It took a lot of calling Optus and making complaint with them to get this.
As a side note about about coverage, given the dual SIM on PF5 Iām looking to get a cheap long term SIM probably from Vodafone, to expand my coverage, given where I travel around too. Thought I need to do a little more research before I commit this.
I had a weird episode this morning with my FP3+ on felix (Vodafone) and hope this hasnāt to do with switching off service to non-whitelisted devices. I couldnāt make or receive any calls anymore. After each attempt to call (the line was just dead and the call automatically ended after 30sec or so) the whole service (incl. data and SMS) was shut down with a message appearing : calls and emergency services are temporarily switched off by your provider for SIM1 - canāt recall the exact wording and if my provider āFelixā was explicitly mentioned. However, it definitely said temporarily. I could restore data and SMS by toggling Aeroplane mode on/off, but as soon as I attempted another phone call - the same as above happened.
I then tried their chatbot which (finally) suggested to switch the phone off, take the SIM out and put it back in. For now, I can make calls againā¦
Iām on Felix with an FP5 and didnāt experience anything like that.
Now that weāre past the 3G shutdown and the governmentās attempt to hide/conflate their banning of devices with actual 3G inoperability, the regulation actually requires telcos to give 28-35 days notice before kicking you off the network if they ābecome awareā that your phone canāt perform the necessary emergency calls. So it shouldnāt just stop working like that. Yours was most likely a temporary network or phone glitch IMHO.
I am not sure I understand all this correctly, but will this be a problem for tourists going to Australia? What was the governments plan then? A lot of tourists will have phones that are probably not on some whitelist, right? Are they risking that all these people canāt make emergency phone calls anymore?
I have a FP5 and I am going to NZ and Australia early next year, so I was starting to wonder if I should be concerned.
The governmentās plan there is to allow (but not require) telcos to not ban non-compliant devices for people who are temporarily in the country for less than 90 days.
In practice, this means tourists have little idea where they stand because the exemption is optional not mandatory.
For you in practice I think it means:
if youāre planning on using roaming, ask your provider which Australian network they have their roaming agreement with. If itās Telstra, be prepared that it may not work with your FP5. If itās Vodafone or Optus you should have no issue.
if youāre planning on buying a local SIM to use while youāre here, make sure whichever provider you buy it from uses the Optus or Vodafone networks. If youāre travelling outside of major cities I strongly recommend you choose an Optus-based provider.
Thank you for the detailed answer! Bookmarking this right now
Has anyone heard of a similar problem in New Zealand? (I know itās a completely different country, but from Europe they still feel kind of closer to each other than to here )
Perfectly reasonable to think of NZ and Aus together! We share supermarket chains, banks, and hardware chains among many many other things
But our mobile spectrum and networks are pretty separate, afaik.
I have a close friend happily using a FP5 in NZ with no issues.
Two of their networks Spark and 2Degrees are running their 3G networks until late 2025 so no VoLTE compatibility issues will be relevant for them until then. My friend is with 2Degrees.
Their third network One NZ seems to have shut down their 3G recently. I have no idea if FP5 works with them.
Thereās definitely not been any panic about emergency calling over there yet, but itās not really a concern until the last 3G network closes, so it could happen yet.
just back from the Telstra store. My FP5 was working fine until the 28th October, since then Iām getting the SIM1 not allowed error. I tried the support chat, first time ended up, theyāll get back to me. Second time, they told me I have to go to a store to get my phone unblocked. All bxxxxsxxx, they never got back to me and the shop couldnāt help me with that matter. They donāt even have a contact to their technical team.
Anyways, they checked an Optus SIM in my phone, which was working. At the end they suggested to write a complaint. They told me the matter will be read and hopefully forwarded to the right department. If somebody else wants to write a complaint, that might get some attention to the matter
I do have an old 4G spare phone that Iām using as hotspot atm. I bought 6 months credit, so will use it for now. If nothing happens until Febuary, Iāll transfer my number to Optus as well.
Unfortunately your experience with Telstra isnāt new, very similar for myself. Id suggest making a complaint, if you donāt hear back from them in a reasonable amount of time go straight to the TIO.
Blockquote Thank you for getting in touch with us on 29 November 2024 about an issue relating to your Telstra account.
I contacted you today via email to discuss your complaint.
As per checking, your concern is with the Fairphone FP5. This originated in Netherlands base on my research. Apparently, it is not compatible with the bandwidth that Australia uses.
Different countries may use different bandwidth. This is the reason your device is not compatible with the bands that we use.
Also, is said to be not IMS Registered. IMS stands for IP Multimedia Subsystem, which is a framework that enables the integration of various multimedia services over IP networks, such as voice, video, messaging, and conferencing.
Apologies as we will not be able to have the Fairphone FP5 working on Australiaās mobile network.
We recommend having a compatible device.
I hope I was able to address your concern. If no other concerns, can we now close the case?
Please call me on 1800 241 787 or let me know a convenient time and Iāll do my best to contact you then. If youād prefer to discuss through email, please respond.
I hope to discuss the details of your complaint with you soon.
Best regards,
I replied to this:
Blockquote Dear xxx,
my device support all required bandwiths, this can be checked for example on the gsm arena website. All FFairphones are from the Netherlands, there is no country specific versions. Alsoy phone worked before on your network!
Buying a new device is mo option for me. It works with Optus and Vodaphone. This is a very disappointing outcome. If Telstra doesnāt want to unblock my device I will change provider. As I can see on multiple online forums, Iām not the only costumer you gonna loose.
Kind regards,
Very bad research from the Telstra team and suggesting to buy a new phone, when I just bought a new phone is a no go. Hopefully others send a complaint as well.
BlockquoteHi Stefan,
We cannot grant your request in unblocking as we did not block the device. The concern is that it is not compatible with the 4G bandwidth. It worked before as it is compatible with 3G but not with the 4G network.
Notifications with the compatibility of devices had been sent before the 3G Exit.
Everything had been explained on the initial email that we sent to you.
If we do not gain an agreement with you about this matter, we will close the case as unresolved.
Thanks,
Gian Carlo
My reply
Blockquote Hi Carlo,
thatās simply not true. The fairphone 5 supports following 4G bandwiths:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 20, 28, 32, 38, 40, 41, 42, 48, 66, 71. So, it covers Telstraās 4G bandwiths and it was working before!
This has now been explained a few times and I still receive wrong information! It does not even look like, Telstra even wants an agreement.
This phone is just a few months old. Telling your costumers to buy a new phone, when there is nothing wrong with it is a no go! Been with Telstra since 2013 and will transfer to Optus, where my phone works!
Kind regards,
Stefan
Anybody else who send a complaint?
At least itās now in their records as unresolved.
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