We were trying to activate a Fairphone 5 using a T-Mobile US eSIM and having problems. Technical support attempted to activate it but while doing so the phone wanted a QR code. T-Mobile tech support said they didn’t use QR codes any more and told us to enter “T-Mobile.gdsb.net” in the manual eSIM setup box. That didn’t work. They then told us the eSIM seemed to be locked, but nothing on the device indicates it is locked.
Another T-Mobile person, at customer service, told us (after we read her the IMEI) that the phone was simply, “not compatible.”
The T-Mobile site for checking compatibility shows that it the device is not blocked on their network and is fully compatible but “…May not be eSIM-compatible.”
I originally came here to ask for help – but subsequent searches revealed this Reddit thread which contains the QR code. It turns out that while T-Mobile may no longer provide the magic QR code, if you have it and scan it your eSIM will work. The QR code is below.
We also decoded the QR code and are now sure that entering “LPA:1$T-MOBILE.GDSB.NET$” into the manual setup box would also have worked if we had known.
Hopefully this information will help others in this situation.
I will be getting the Fairphone 5 via ups next week from the clove website that sells/ships to usa. Anyway, I have a Samsung Note 9 512GB unlocked and currently have Mint sim in it with active service. Has anyone with active service from a previous phone been able to just insert it into FP5 and have it work?
I’m currently working in the US for three weeks. After a few days, my FP5 is performing well. I have both a physical Dutch SIM and an eSIM from Keepgo (a worldwide operator). The functionality is good, even on 5G. While I’m aware of potential battery life issues with 5G, I haven’t tested it myself as I’m mostly connected to WiFi every day. However, during periods without WiFi, I’ve had successful connections (although I haven’t made any calls during these times, so that aspect remains untested).
Mostly of the time I’m connected with T-mobile or AT&T (based in Texas).
What do you mean exactly also with your title to this topic (I moved btw) which was named “when will FP4 get Android 13 or 14”. The FP4 already has Android 13 and even 14 with custom ROM?
You can order the FP5 through reseller?
FairPhone4 user in the woods of New Hampshire, USA here. T-Mobile reports 5G just about everywhere we’ve gone so far, some just a couple bars (-105 db).
Just switched to T-Mobile and saving $100/month! Hoping for the best.
This is absolutely bewildering - my FP5 will consistently receive small MMS videos (<3MB) as a thumbnails + a .qcp file, medium MMS videos <30-34MB as just a thumbnail and large >=34MB MMS videos. Popping the same SIM/APN values into my Pixel4a5g on LOS receives all video MMS just fine. I’ve tried several different SMS apps, so I know it’s not on that layer. It must be either something in the FP firmware or eOS. Any thoughts?
US on a Verizon MVNO (US Mobile). I know FP5 isn’t officially supported for Verizon yet, but everything else works great. Unfortunately I don’t have another provider to test and wouldn’t want to switch just for video MMS. Was hoping someone might know a little bit about the video MMS mechanics for this scenario, since it’s such a strange and specific issue, and if I could fix it, then I could say the phone works perfectly for the second largest mobile phone network provider in the US.
To increase the chance to get help I moved your post here, maybe anyone in the US has/had the same issues. Also if not yet done ask in the murena forum, they can probably look into it.
Update: I have now returned this phone to the latest stock OS and have relocked the bootloader. If it doesn’t sell in this forum in the next two days, I will post it on Ebay and/or Swappa.
Funny. I can’t send a file on T-mobile without degrading the video file to less than 32mb when the US limit on any network is 100mb as the file size limit. I have to use the Luma Fusion video editor to re-edit the file in question to 240p at the lowest bit rate to send via MMS. The reason is that anything over the 32mb limit will try to compress the file to a shorter video length with bad quality. I used to edit video as a living. I used windows movie maker 2012 and Devinchi Resolve on windows. A 20min 1080p video is about 2GB. Try to compress that into a 32mb file is difficult to do without lowering the resolution, bit rate, and the length of the video to like 5Min. So all I do is just send pictures and gifs over the T-mobile MMS network. I can’t get any video to work. This is however not an issue with straight talk with my mothers Samsung Galaxy S20 FE. It got to be something with FairPhone products itself, because that shouldn’t be an issue. The only way otherwise is upload to a cloud server and send a link to anyone through MMS
(Settings used on Luma Fusion compressed 84MB Xbox Game Capture to an Estimate of 7.4mb)
Well under the 32mb limit. A a 5min clip. I’ll update you after rendering the video if if it was successful on MMS
Just to update. The Fairphone 5 that I received, I put in the Mint Mobile sim and it picked up as T-Mobile even after putting in Mint’s APN details. However, everything is working great with Mint, after feeding their apn details in I can make and receive calls. I get here in NJ generally full bars on 4G/5G all over this area via Mint/T-Mobile.
