Call quality and noise cancellation (regular calls, handsfree, Signal voice messages, Microsoft Teams video calls)

Well, here are a few more cents regarding the call quality.

Robotic sounds:
I noticed them when my FP4 was in the telekom.de 2G network. While the phone and the carrier were handling out how to best communicate with each other, I heard those robotic sounds. This is probably while network speed, EDGE or GPRS etc. are set and switched.

I came across this issue while playing around with my three SIMs. telekom.de is an eSIM, while vodafone.de and o2-de are physical ones. Now, if I use vodafone.de together with telekom.de and I start my FP4 5G, VoLTE is not activated for telekom.de. Therefore, calls fall back to the 2G network. VoLTE is activated for vodafone.de. If I use o2-de together with telekom.de, VoLTE is active for both SIMs. VoLTE is set to on for all my three SIMs by standard.

So, at least for now, it’s probably best to only use one SIM card to avoid calling quality issues. But since I came from iOS and then from a OnePlus 9, I can tell that this at least in part has to do with SIM card configurations, because I had experienced such stuff there, too.

Greetings, and have a good time!

Not sure, I only use a single (5G) provider on my FP4 (eSIM), and still have call quality issues…

For the record, for me at least issues appear randomly (not all the time), and independently of connection type (2G to 5G), but I didn’t notice any issue when using a headset (either the Fairphone Earbuds, or my old wired headset). A high ambient noise level (calling while in the streets, strong wind, etc.) does invariably cause choppy sound issues.

Meaning that whatever is wrong with call quality, it is most likely to reside in the management of the integrated microphone(s), and more specifically with noise suppression.

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OK, thank you for your update. I will open those support tickets, and then let’s hope that this is gaining a higher priority.

BTW: making calls in ear to mouth mode, setting the speaker’s volume to 0 is still very loud for me. OK, I do have a very good hearing, but may that be just my FP4?

No, volume is tricky. But then again it’s a moving target since it depends on phone call quality too. Some calls are very quiet, others I have to hold at a distance from my ear…

Just finished a Teams video call with the loudspeakers. It went well this time. So not sure when it got fixed, I used my earbuds every time. Maybe Teams fixed it themselves, but not sure. Since the quality of Signal voice messages was also dependent on some tweaks Fairphone needed to make. But this is good news! :tada:

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I have a fairly same problem:
. calls bij Signal and Whatsapp are good,
. recording a converesation is good,
. placing and receiving calls: incoming sound is good, uotgoing sound is bad or not heared.

Any suggestions ?
Thanks in advance,
René.

That’s a different and unfortunately well-known issue. See here:

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I moved it “here” (in 20 characters)

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Hi, I do have similar problems like some of you here in this thread. Since I have my FP4 (was on FP2 before) I am having problems with people telling me the connection is really poor. My husband has no problems with his FP3. I tested the mics, all good. So, any tipps or tricks? I get the best results either using headphones or using the loudspeaker. But this is not always an option.
Looking forward to hearing from someone about this.

Well, contactsupport would be your best option, as nobody has found a silver bullet solution yet… :frowning_face:
As you might read in the hundreds of posts above, people (including me) have thought they discovered and thus tried all kind of solutions, disabling 5G, disabling Google, changing temperature, changing/removing the SIM, sacrificing a black rooster at midnight, all in vain.

If there is one thing that is going to make me sell this phone it’s the terrible call quality. I can live with the rest honestly, but having to repeat myself over and over is something I can’t bear.

I thought I was just slurring or something, but I called a friend with my Galaxy S-whatever from work and she said “Wow, you sound so much clearer than usual” and that’s when I realized that the audio of this phone is truly garbage.

I use 4G and my carrier doesn’t even support 5G as far as I know.

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My mother has already sold hers in favour of a Huawei P30 Pro. Fairphone cripples its own customers. How come they haven’t fixed this issue in circa 2 and a half years, consisering it’s a MAJOR customer deterrence?

As the FP4 has only be on the streets for 1 and a half years, are you also saying you had the same problem with an FP3?

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Presumably, they have more important things to attend to. Maybe they plan on fixing it in Android 13, or perhaps they will fix it when they’re done counting the money. I don’t know, but I find the lack of acknowledgment of the issue hilarious.

It got released in November of 2021, right?

It’s frustrating. Don’t they see that this makes them loose both money and customers?

The problem I guess is, it does not affect everyone so troubelshooting is extremly difficult, (no excuse just an explanation).

Yes Oct 2021 and now in my time zone it is April 2023 so more or less 1.5 years and not

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I see, fair. Also, yep, 1 and a half years, I confused something there.

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Presumably they’ve done the math and realized they will earn more money this way. That’s how corps work unfortunately.

I really hope FP won’t turn out to be another wolf in sheep’s clothes, but I can’t help but shake the feeling that they might be using the fair aspect for marketing rather than out of a genuine interest of making a difference.

Maybe you want to read the impact report and just one comment: the mission is being fair to the poor people doing the underpaid up to dangerous job so that we can use a smartphone and not mainly for us here in quite privileged part of the world?

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