Good point. Yes its strange but im just happy to get VoLTE working finally!
Hello All! I thought I’d give a brief overview of my experience with a FP4 in the US. To be more specific, midwest United states. In short; it works, mostly. There are some weird times where I loose connection in places I wouldn’t expect, like on the sidewalk in a major city, or while driving on the interstate just outside of the downtown of a major city. However the experience is much better than that of the FP3. I am from a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, South Dakota. I drove from a major Minnesotan city back home on a semi regular basis. That route often ended in me having no cell signal for significant portions of the trip, and almost no signal at all once I crossed into the South Dakotan border. However, on the FP4, I am able to have at least 4G signal almost the entire way, with only some spots having that 4G come in weak. To specify, calling of Signal was spotty but could hold most of the time, and the times where a call wouldn’t work, music streaming was serviceable. All in all, it’s much better than it used to be!
If anyone has any questions or wants more information, please let me know and I’d be happy to provide.
Some specs:
Phone: FP4, 256GB, 8GB RAM Speckled Green version
Mobile Network: T-Mobile(have not tested other networks on FP4 yet)
Build Number: FP4.FP4G.A.170.20220920
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I moved your post here to not have spread single descriptions through the forum and cumulated together in this topic
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Hi @duhg , can you share a bit more about your success with the unofficial FP4 LOS build and VoLTE and how you got there? I just flashed the latest LOS 20 image from @mmustermann (I was already eying that thread for a while), but I still do not get an IMS registration and the “4G calling” toggle remains gray. Using Mint mobile (T-Mobile network). Like, are you using that exact same image or an older one, did you had to configure anything special, or any specific APN settings?
I have only tested on mmustermann’s LOS 19 image and e/OS (1.6 dev image). I am still with my family on Christmas holiday break but when I get back to my place I will grab a Mint Mobile sim to do some more testing. I will also try out the LOS 20 image. Originally I had used a prepaid Tmobile sim so in theory Mint should work flawlessly as well… Im not sure if it would make a difference but the Tmobile sim that I had tried was “already active” with one of my other devices and I just swapped it over after flashing the FP4. I will report back soon 
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@duhg you enjoy your holiday break, the issue seems to be resolved! See FP4 and LineageOS - #558 by lriesebos .
So in summary, Running the latest LOS 20 build (lineage-20.0-20221228-UNOFFICIAL-FP4 by @mmustermann ) will result in a fully functional FP4 in the USA on the T-Mobile network (Mint mobile for me)! That includes data, text, and VoLTE! The FP4 also supports all major bands used by T-Mobile, so coverage should be as good as it gets. Y’all have a happy new year!
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That’s great news! I hadn’t bought a Mint Mobile sim yet so I will refrain from doing so.
Cheers!
Hi strongthany,
I’m also based in the U.S., and I split my time primarily between St. Louis, Indianapolis, and San Antonio, for family and work considerations.
I’m really interested in buying a Fairphone 4. I have a few questions for you…
1.) I know that you use T-Mobile. Do you happen to know any FP owners who use AT&T? I’d be grateful to learn from their experiences.
2.) How do you handle FP warranty matters as a U.S.-based resident?
3.) Does your FP 4 enable you to switch from 5G to 4G? I’m a bit concerned about the safety/radiation exposure of 5G phones, hence my question.
Thanks so much for your help, strongthany!
Jesse
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Question for those of you who have a FP4 on Mint (or T-mobile or other T-mobile MVNOs), and especially for those who have installed LOS: When your phone isn’t showing that you have 5G service, do you see any sort of a LTE/4G icon in the status bar?
Following up from some of the messages last month, I tried installing LOS to see if it would resolve problems with inconsistent/poor quality service, I just installed LOS yesterday, so it’s a bit too soon to tell, but I can say that since installing LOS I’m now seeing a “5G” icon in the status bar when wifi is off (and when wifi is on I can still see that there is a “5G” connection if I check the “Internet” status from the settings pull-down menu).
afaik, LOS will show 4G in the status bar if it is connected to such a network, just like 5G.
if you want to confirm that for yourself, you could switch your preferred network type in settings to LTE to see if it shown 4G in the status bar. NR means 5G.
@jkharbanda 3) in the settings of your sim card you can change the preferred network type to something that goes only up to 4G.
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maybe this could be interesting, I think in the past AT&T was not working well if at all, you can search this topic for reports
When you buy through a reseller, they should handle warranty, if a friend or family living in Europe buys it for you warranty has to be handled by this person.
In general you can turn off 5G.
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Thank you, @yvmuell for your reply! I’ve reached out to Manoj, the gentleman who was soliciting for testers, and I hope to hear back from him soon… And thank you for responding to my question re: warranty and 5G, too. Thank you again, too, to @lriesebos for your replies!
Jesse
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Hello,
Has anyone in this group bought their Fairphone from either Murena, Vireo, or Macromart?
I’d be grateful to learn from your experience, particularly when it comes to customer service and technical support and warranty fulfillment. I live in the United States, and when I corresponded directly with Fairphone, they encouraged me to consider buying the FP4 from a vendor that sells directly to the U.S. (and other countries outside of the E.U.).
Thanks so much,
Jesse
I moved your topic here, maybe others can help you to select a reseller. Vireo and Clove in the UK have been mentioned in the forum already several times, I guess Murena is good as well, as they have cooperation with Fairphone. Reg Murena this might be interesting
Else have a look at the reseller list
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Thank you, @yvmuell, for pointing me to the re-sellers article! Due to seeing that article, I’ve now contacted Clove and iode (and had previously contacted Vireo and Murena).
As I become more knowledgeable, I’ll certainly share my learning with others here!
Jesse
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I know you can buy Fairphones via drop-shipping countries like Clove. I also know those companies can also help facilitate shipping for exchanges and repairs. How long does it take to get a phone either exchanged or repaired this way?
just wanted to add another DP that my FF3 is working great on T-Mobile in Southern US right now
using a prepaid SIM that works even though the store said it would not–WIFI calling and VOLTE working as well
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Hi All! Last week I purchased a FP4 from Clove. It is currently scheduled to be delivered on Monday. I’ll be using this phone on T-Mobile. I’m quite comfortable with Lineage, having run that OS on all of my family’s phones for several years. I was quite pleased to read the recent reports in this forum thread that VoLTE was working well with Lineage/T-Mobile. If I may, I have two questions:
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I just stumbled across @rca comment in the main Lineage/FP4 thread about having speaker issues with outgoing calls on Lineage. This person is also in the USA. Are other US users having this same problem?
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What is the current status of Lineage/T-Mobile and Wifi calling? Is there hope for getting that to work, or is that broken? I see comments in this thread about that not working, but I don’t think I read any comments about anyone getting it to work.
Thanks!
Bryan
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@2allseew Wifi calling is working well on the FP4 that I’m using on Mint (T-mobile) with LOS20, and the phone is working well in other respects (VoLTE, etc), too.
Regarding the issue with outgoing audio, it is still present with the latest LOS20 update from 2/19, and I haven’t seen any update to the bug report that I submitted to LOS. As you probably noticed, there also haven’t been any replies on the LOS thread by others reporting the same problem. Toggling speakerphone on/off on the first call after a reboot has been working well enough as a workaround. It’s a very minor annoyance, but not one that would prevent me from getting an FP4 or running LOS, or even making the effort to try e/OS or other builds to check whether the problem goes away with those.
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Thanks for the reply! Glad to hear that wifi calling is working for you! I agree that your workaround for the audio issue is an easy temporary solution if I end up needing it.
Much obliged,
Bryan