Fairphone owners in the USA (FP2 FP3 FP4 FP5)

[anon6]

I bought a FP5 recently. I live in the southern US, so I bought it from Clove and had it shipped here. I know some people have had issues with cell signal over here, so I did some research beforehand. I checked the bands of the local cell towers, and was prepared to switch to T-Mobile.

When the phone arrived, it had all sorts of weird call/mobile data behavior, similar to what a lot of people here have reported.

When using an old Verizon SIM, I had no service. No calls, no texts, no internet.

The following happened with a new prepaid SIM from a T-Mobile MVNO, and a new proper T-Mobile SIM:

• I couldn’t get any 5G or 4G service. I did get 2G (GPRS and EDGE, can confirm both work).
• It seems to take a while for the SIM to “take”. I can make and recieve texts immediately, I can make calls after like 10 minutes, and I can take calls after a couple hours. (like https://old.reddit.com/r/fairphone/comments/190wwt2/does_fairphone_5_work_in_the_us_yet/kgrerm1/)
• After inserting a new SIM card and making a call, I can hear the person on the other end of the line, but they can’t hear me. If I then turn on and off the speakerphone, they can suddenly hear me.

I know all 3 SIMs work, because popping them into an old Pixel works perfectly, within seconds.

I’m using the stock Android that came on the phone, Android 14. I know everyone’s recommendation here is to use Lineage, but I was under the impression that it isn’t necessary for T-Mobile, and is less necessary for FP5.

I went through all the diagnostic steps in the Fairphone support page, messed with all of the SIM card settings, turned on & off wifi calling, lots of restarts. Manual APN settings, default APN settings. I’ve done the ##2886## thing, and it says that the hardware is working correctly.

I haven’t gone through this entire megathread, but I’ve seen a number of people report similar things. In all of those cases, something was different, like it was a FP4, or a different OS, or VoLTE, or something. I’m adding to the list that this happens on a stock FP5 with multiple cell carriers.

I ended up solving it with the help of people in this thread. Someone suggested (for a different problem) to dial *#*#2886#*#*. I saw that the “Set Preferred Network Type” was set to “NR/LTE/GSM/WCDMA”. I changed it to “NR/LTE” to try to force to choose something other than EDGE, and it worked!

Previously in the Network & internet > SIMs > [my sim] > Preferred network type was set to 5G/4G/3G/2G, and there were no options to prevent it from choosing 2G. But now, it reports NR/LTE, just like in the secret menu.

Hope this helps someone!

[MattAtkins]

@anon6

I ended up solving it with the help of people in this thread. Someone suggested (for a different problem) to dial *#*#2886#*#*. I saw that the “Set Preferred Network Type”

This was SO helpful - But for me, the code to get to the ‘Set Preferred Network Type’ was *#*#4636#*#*, then select Phone information - the dropdown for ‘Set Preferred Network Type’ was about 3/4 of the way down the screen.

For anybody following on, you can watch the screen for changes as you change the setting - I found Data Raw Registration State and Voice Raw Registration State helpful - ‘HOME’ is the state you’re looking for. Give it a couple minutes between changes for it to settle down,

[Cmdr.Beef]

I just got a FP5 from Clove and I’m on T-Mobile in Texas. I was having all the problems you described (no mobile data + people i called reporting they couldn’t hear me), and this seemed to get it working. I appreciate y’all sharing tips like this. I’m hoping to use this thing until 2032!

[AitorLI]

I just recently moved to Chicago and I have some connectivity issues too, maybe some of you have experienced them so far and can help.
I arrived to Chicago with a FP5 and a European physical SIM that I wanted to keep. I went to T-mobile since I saw in this forum that it was basically the only US company for FP owners and I took an eSIM.
After activating my T-mobile account, I had high quality uninterrupted phone connection, but no internet at all. After calling T-mobile support for nothing, I explored this thread and I found this very useful @anon6 's post. I typed *#*#44636#*#* and changed “Set Preferred Network Type” from “NR/LTE/GSM/WCDMA” to “NR/LTE”. After that, I got Internet, but still with some problems:

1. When I switch on my phone, it takes ~1’30’’ to activate Internet (not a great deal).

2. Although the connection triangle on the right-up part of the screen is generally full, I have no phone connection: I cannot make a phone call.

3. When I’m connected to Wi-Fi, I have no internet problems, but the connection triangle gets empty, and, of course, I don’t have phone connection.

4. SMS service does not work properly. Either I don’t get SMSs or they arrive two hours later (e.g. in case of authentification SMSs from my bank).

5. Although I have good internet connection generally, I disappears every 10 min. So I have Internet connection for 10 min and then I don’t for 1:30 min or 2 min. Interestingly, this is regular: I have connection for 10 minutes and the I lost it for 1:30-2 min, and then it connects again, and this cycle repeats every 10 minutes, with little variation in connection-no connection times.

Does anyone have any idea of why this happens? Can anyone help me? Has anyone had a similar experience?

Thank you!

[yvmuell]

FP6 available with Murena e/OS in US from August

I know it matches some previous topics but I think it is big enough to deserve a separate topic Inspired by Reddit

[pmz]

Hi everyone!

I have moved to Seattle recently and choose “Ultra” as my T-Mobile MVNO based on information in this forum that the T-Mobile network is the only one supported by the FP5. Initially all was well and I just inserted the SIM card and had 5G reception.

Last weekend I installed the most recent firmware update and since then 5G connectivity was impossible. The phone defaulted to GSM or EDGE connections.
Today I found this thread and using the settings in the *#*#2886#*#* menu, I could get 5G connection back. Thank you for this suggestion @anon6!

I am wondering now if it is worth to contact Fairphone support on this matter if this issue is related to the recent update or not. Has someone else made the same experience as I?

Wish you all a great weekend!

[rascalking]

Check to see if the “4G Calling” setting got turned off for you by the firmware update. It did for me (fp5 on Verizon), and turning it back on fixed my connectivity problems

[pmz]

Thank you! This resolved my issue.

I think I was also not patient enough earlier. I observed now that it can take 1-2 min to get the 5G connection properly established after switching settings in the *#*#2886#*#* menu.

[kanishka]

This worked for me. Three weeks of stress with no data service until I found this ):