Caller unknown if 4G, unreachable when not

Help Fairphone 6
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1

My issue is with caller unknown which probably happens because Fairphone is ignoring Slovene network operators (that’s a shame, I hope they’ll consider supporting them in the future as 4G calls are really useful) - A1 in my case (Vodaphone). I followed the suggestion to disable 4G calls, but then phone becomes unreachable - also can’t make calls. So now I’m stuck with a fresh new device that either doesn’t display caller id or doesn’t make phone calls at all. Other connections (Internet, SMS and like work fine either way).

Using latest Fairphone OS.

Any idea what might be wrong when 4G calls are disabled for phone to become unreachable to phone calls?

2

Just a thought; how old is your SIM card?

3

3-4 years old, can this play a role?

4

Yes, there are reports of users where their SIM card worked in another phone but not in a Fairphone. After getting a new SIM card you have the chance that is solves your problem.

5

Thanks for the idea, will certainly try it out. However I really also wish that Fairphone gets to support 4G calls in my country, was actually surprised that this is not the case.

6

Hello,
I am surprised to read that A1 is not supported as I hear they are connected with Telekom and Vodaphone and both these companies are listed as supporting 4 G [edited to add in other European countries]

https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/9779766652689-How-to-set-up-4G-and-Wi-Fi-Calling

Wikipedia entry on A1 suggests they switched off 3G which might be the reason you cannot call with 4 G disabled.

When asking for a new SIMcard, could you also try asking your provider about 4G? Perhaps your phone needs to be registered with them properly?

Edited to say I have indeed no knowledge what is supported in Slovenia, sorry for misunderstanding.

7

In Slovene? To my understanding its country specific.

8

That was how I understood T-Mobile is supported in Poland but double checking you may be right, and it could be country-specific.

For FP5 the website says

Screenshot_20251116-181801_1
Screenshot_20251116-181801_1891×1966 96.8 KB

But we don’t have Telekom as one of our offered providers, only T-Mobile which belongs to Telekom.

I will edit my post cause it seems I misspoke.

9

Hi,

Previously Pixel 6a worked just fine with 4G calls (VoLTE), though A1 enabled for me VoLTE on my request.

Now what does 4G calls in Fairphone context exactly means? It will always try to use VoLTE? Shall I ask A1 to turn off VoLTE for me?

PS. Our Slovene Telekom isn’t affiliated with other Telekom providers in other countries I think.

10

It means the same as for all phones: you use internet to make phone calls when VoLTE is enabled and works. And no what your provider would have to do is, enable/allow it for the FP4 in their ecosystem, because you could just disable it on your handset.
Is there 3G or 2G still available in your country? If not you are not able to make call and I think you confirmed this already above.

11

So, yeah, I’ve talked to A1 support and apparently they still support 2G for a reason or another, so disabling 4G and enabling 2G did the trick. It’s not the best solution, but it works. Hopefully Fairphone eventually adds 4G support for, at least, EU network operators. I mean, it’s EU after all…

Edit: thanks all for ideas and help

1 Like
12

just to clarify for other reading: you mean full VoLTE support because you can use 4G just not for calling when you want to see who is calling, because at the end it works, with unknown caller.
Also, for whatever reason although you confirm 2G is still available the phone does not fall back to 2G when VoLTE is disabled.

It still (also) might be A1 has to work on this, and provider very often refuse their homework…

13

Yet I’m not entirely sure about 4G and VoLTE relation. As I understand it, VoLTE is a feature of 4G, not equivalent.

So, when I have 4G calls enabled, everything works except for caller unknown issue, like you said.

“Also, for whatever reason although you confirm 2G is still available the phone does not fall back to 2G when VoLTE is disabled.”

I had 2G disabled that’s why it didn’t fall back (probably, since I never tried with both 4G and 2G enabled).

It still (also) might be A1 has to work on this, and provider very often refuse their homework…

I don’t think this is the case here. It most probably was the combination of 4G calls not supported on my network by FP and me having 2G disabled.