Any way to speed up Fairphone's distribution plans outside of Europe?

Maybe some crowdfunding campaign or something like that.

Current android offerings are just garbage with OS updates lasting no longer than 3 years max on ultra premium phones, which are also not friendly to repair outside of warranty. And Apple’s are just completely unfriendly for repair if something fails outside of warranty. I found some alternatives, but they’re using trash budget processors to the point the phone is almost unusable and unreliable.

Welcome to the community forum.

If you could bring your country to associate with the EU through a series of bilateral treaties in which your country adopts various provisions of European Union law in order to participate in the Union’s single market without joining as a member state (*) quicker than Fairphone can sort out “complicated logistics, local legal requirements, high costs and different VAT regulations” to do viable long-term distribution outside of the EU/EFTA comfort zone … this should speed things up.

You said “any” way :wink: .

That being said, there are already brave souls out there pioneering Fairphone use outside of Fairphone markets, which of course faces its challenges considering the lack of direct official support.
But at least there should be a way to get a Fairphone if you are certain that you can use it with your networks and if you really want to have one.

Here are some inspirational topics … Fairphone owners in the USA (FP2 FP3 FP4 FP5)🏒 Canadian Fairphoners! 🇨🇦Fairphones in Australia 🇦🇺

Also note the hints from Fairphone on how to tackle this at https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/202005103, section “No shipping outside of continental Europe”.

* Shamelessly ripped from Switzerland–European Union relations - Wikipedia

Does that include Teracube, for example?

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(Unrealistic, but anyway:) For quite a while I have come to think it would need a whole new, economically independent, separate sister entity in (North) America to bring this into reach. Say “Fairphone America”. An entity whose initial losses Fairphone doesn’t need to share. Fairphone America might go for a licence by Fairphone (the existing company) to be allowed to adopt and adapt (high additional costs!) the (then) existing Fairphone for the North American market, its standards and certifications. Crowdfunding could play a role in starting such an entity.

Having said that, I still think Fairphone (existing) would likely not want to take any risks outside the European market right now, including even any risks of being held (even just morally) liable for any maldevelopments of such a loosely linked North American entity.

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Yeah, the Teracube’s performance is abysmal. It’s not really usable if it lags, taps don’t register, and apps keep crashing. They probably could’ve upgraded to a Snapdragon 400 series for +$100 more or something, and would’ve been insanely better. I mean, a Moto G play with a Snapdragon retails for $100 less than the Teracube; doubling the price is more than enough margin.

Oh well, looks like it’s gonna be back to the used iPhone market for the time being.

Yeah, all these laws turns into quite a headache. Wonder if they could just bypass that by selling a disassembled phone and you just put it together yourself; then it’s only considered parts rather than a complete device (less regulations?) and gives the user experience in how to fix it.

Not that this is a full solution to the problem or directly responsive to your question, but it is possible to order a FP4 from European distributors, ship it to the US, and have the phone work far better than Terracube or many regular US cell phones. That said, I’d give a significant donation to to FP4 or any other organization if it sped up the North American distribution process. We desperately need a fully-supported FP4 here, and I think it would do quite well.

The Pixel 6 and especially the Pixel 6a don’t have flagship prices but do have 5 years of very good software support. The downside is that in 5 years you likely have to replace the battery and maybe more parts. This is an issue for phones glued shut. So you might still prefer a Fairphone. Just highlighting that things are improving in the software support lifetime.

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Yes there are business that will ship to the US but you will then have to ask them for support as Faiprhone do not directly support users outside the EU etc.

See below for resellers.

Then see some comments about such use; for example:

https://forum.fairphone.com/search?q=fairphone%20canada

Hey all!

I’ve read a couple threads along these lines that are already on the forums, but the latest I saw was about a year and a half old so I wanted to ping everyone for a more recent take. How is the Fairphone 4 working for US based users? Which carriers are you using, and which are not recommended? Has there been any rumblings or rumors of FP extending operations officially into the US?

Hi and welcome, I moved your question here.

Otherwise as we are user like you we dont have any official information not published elswhere.

For how its working, please read here

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Fairphone 4 officially available in Taiwan :taiwan:

Quite remarkable in my eyes, there is apparently the first non-European Fairphone 4 launch going on as I’m typing this:

SCREENSHOT in case the above link doesn't properly show

Noud Tillemans is Fairphone’s Chief Financial Officer.

P.S.: Now also an official announcement on Facebook.


Interesting in this context as well:
Murena is testing their /e/OS operating system on the Fairphone 4 in the USA.

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In a recent articles, a Fairphone representative announced very high sales numbers for the next year which left me perplex but it seems it would be because of sales out of Europe. Let’s hope they don’t forget to improve their customer support…

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Over the years, North American availability has been teased but I’m not aware of anything notable since November 2020. I understand logistics and certification are concerns. Additionally, green shipping may not be as viable as it is over in Europe but speaking frankly, that’s making good the enemy of perfection since we don’t have many viable options over here when it comes to longevity in our consumer electronics and right to repair. If I don’t buy a Fairphone I’m going to be buying something like a Pixel or Galaxy S22. The Nokia device everyone’s been touting as a competitor in my view isn’t very competitive and neither is the Teracube 2E in regards to repairability and adequate software support. Who cares if a device is repairable and features a removable battery if it only gets two years of software support and the hardware was mediocre to begin with? I know many privacy/eco-conscious individuals that are highly awaiting the Fairphone 4/5(?). We’re a massive market that’s not really being addressed in any meaningful capacity.

When — or even whether — there will be a Fairphone 4 is a question he isn’t keen to engage with. Clearly the hope is Fairphone 3 packs enough smartphone punch to go the distance. Though he hints it might look to offer additional smartphones in order to enter the US, a major market it’s so far not addressed at all.

As an Amsterdam-based organization, we wanted to launch the Fairphone products in Europe and planned to expand at a later point. The time has come and the question now is: “How fast can we make this happen?”. We have already established some partnerships and we hope to expand even further. You can read more about this in the section below.
This article links to Murena which doesn’t even offer FP4 anymore.

1.) Is any of the recent $53M growth capital being allocated towards North American availability?
2.) Has a partnership with iFixIt or Teracube been considered? iFixIt made a similar deal with Valve for the Steam Deck and Nokia for their new device and it seems to be going great for everyone.
3.) When will we realistically hear something about NA availability as it’s been over five years since it was teased?
I can’t stay on this LG V20 (2016) forever as I’m pretty sure it will catch fire one day given how hot it runs so some transparency regarding NA availability would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome @ADL I realize that I’m not answering your core question… I don’t really know the answer to your question. However, I’m just hear to say that if you really want a Fairphone in North America, you can make it work. There are plenty of us using the Fairphone 4 in the United States. (I can’t speak to Canada or Mexico.) A few caveats for the USA:

  1. You basically need to use T-Mobile as your cellular provider. (When I bought my FP4, I switched from Verizon to T-Mobile.)

  2. The stock Fairphone OS doesn’t seem to work for voice calling in the United States, for some unknown reason. However, LineageOS works great. That also wasn’t a problem for me – replacing the stock OS with Lineage or Lineage for Microg is essentially a requirement for my phones. :wink:

If you can handle those things (acknowledging that point 2 requires some technical ability), then consider moving forward. I imported my FP4 from www.clove.co.uk about a month ago. I’m very happy with the way everything has turned out.

See: Fairphone owners in the USA (FP2 FP3 FP4)

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