Here’s a thread released around the 1 year mark of the Fairphone 4 if you want to read about people’s experiences with that phone:
Thanks for that thread. It is still open and active. So at least for the last three fairphones the support was this bad…
I guess fack me for believing the fairphone homepage / marketing and not researching enough before buying. I just wanted to have this phone a little too much… 
I bought my Fairphone 4 about 4 years ago and it’s largely been disappointment after disappointment ever since. I considered CalyxOS since the main issue seems to be the OS, and well.. that went well.
I really believe Fairphone is trying to make the world a better place, and it’s terrible that the factory workers have it as bad as they do. I just wish Fairphone made a better consumer experience too.
I have a FP5 with Orange network in France and I have no problem with updates.
There is also 3 other independent network providers with their own network and I never heard any problem with updates from their customers with Fairphones either.
I got one week delay for the last update (security patch/quickstep fix), which is not reason to complain about.
Hi, I just bought a Fairphone 6 today and have this issue, also a Vodafone Germany customer, and I have the June 5th update.
I think this is a deal breaker for me and I will return my phone. I can’t just end my Vodafone contract this easily (there is a termination period), and using an internet connected Android device with a 3 month (almost 4 month now) old security update is unacceptable.
What a disappointment because the phone seems otherwise great. D:
Is there a list somewhere with carriers that are supported? Maybe I will consider switching but I need a guarantee that updates will still be received if I switch carriers. This isn’t a simple process and I don’t want to go through all the hassle for no reason. I am quite satisfied with Vodafone.
I have a FP5 with Orange network in France and I have no problem with updates.
There is also 3 other independent network providers with their own network and I never heard any problem with updates from their customers with Fairphones either.
I got one week delay for the last update (security patch/quickstep fix), which is not reason to complain abou
This is something Fairphone should make very clear, especially a company that promises 7 years of update. And 600 euros isn’t cheap for a phone. This shouldn’t be something the customer only discovers after they buy the phone and google for the problem. I have never had this happen with any other phone before.
It’ll be October tomorrow, and VF users still have the update from June 5th. That is unacceptable for a phone that came out just a few months ago.
The company (Fairphone) is contractually forbidden to name carriers (which get the updates late).
You might want to still give it a few more hours wait today:
Thanks a lot for the very quick reply! 
You might want to still give it a few more hours wait today:
Of course I will wait a few days. I can’t return it today anyway because it is quite late and the post office closes in an hour
But is this a regular occurrence? I mean, will the next update also be months late?
At the moment since approx half a year, yes with VF DE this same with all updates. They are delayed more or less time.
Vodafone DE has not received a songle update since may…
Oh, well I have to think about this and consider if I will continue to use this phone and switch my phone carrier.
Thank you for the information.
Is anyone else here from Germany that can confirm if carriers on other networks (e.g. carriers on Deutsche Telekom’s network) receive updates?
Sadly, Deutsche Telekom carriers are often more expensive, but I will consider it because I really like this phone and the mission behind it.
Drillisch seemed to work (deutschland sim)
Deutsche Telekom is usually a few days, sometimes a week or two late.
1&1 and Telefónica (previously O2) don’t seem to check the updates and deliver them directly.
Well, that’s sad because I previously had O2 and the service was TERRIBLE in my city on my previous phone (iPhone 12), so that’s definitely not an option. Everything got better when I switched to Vodafone. I guess I will check out 1&1. I’ve never used their service
The most reliable so far always was O2.
Drilisch contracts use the 1&1 network with “roaming” in the VF netwotk. I received all updates with my simplytel contract immediately. For me reception detoriatwd a bit after my contract was moved from O2 to 1&1 by Drillisch (without asking)
Although I wasn’t optimistic that this would work, I still tried to remove the sim card and check for updates. As expected, it still didn’t work.
I guess reinstalling the OS with the SIM card removed might work, but I am not willing to setup everything from scratch again because it already took me an hour to setup all my apps. I just wish I had known about this issue before I setup everything, then I would have updated first before inserting the sim card.
Another thing I am considering is installing a custom ROM, but it seems that none of the currently available ones support relocking the bootloader. Even eOS, as far as I understood, only supports relocking the bootlader for devices that were bought from Murena with eOS already on them, which makes sense I guess, but maybe I misunderstood.
As I wrote earlier today, I am on T-Mobile in Germany and did not receive a phone update since July and did not receive an Android security patch since June.
Thanks for the info, I missed your comment.
Unfortunately, O2 is not an option for me. No way I am going back to that miserable experience, and as @yvmuell mentioned, 1&1 has not been a very good experience for them, so I guess custom ROM or returning the phone are my options now. I still have 30 days to return the phone, as I bought it today from Cyberport (which has 30 day return guarantees), so I will sleep on it today and think about my options. In the mean time, I won’t install a custom ROM in case I decide to return it. I prefer to keep the stock OS as custom ROMs often void the warranty. I know it doesn’t void the Fairphone’s warranty, but I am not sure how Cyberport would handle a returned phone where the bootloader had been unlocked (even if I relock it)
I was very tempted to move to Congstar, a Telekom subsidiary, but if as you mention, Telekom also does not receive updates, then that is not an option either.
I dont read that Telekom user isnt receiving updates?
And I think you could try a cheap 1&1 SIM for a month, all the Drillisch companies have cheap offers.
The user who commented above my previous (@lowbob123) says that they didn’t receive an update since May on T-Mobile in Germany, which is a Deutsche Telekom company.
EDIT: Sorry, the user said their last update was on July, not May.