Fairphone owners in the USA (FP2 FP3 FP4 FP5)

Hello,
I’ll be travelling to the USA in a few weeks and was thinking about buying a prepaid esim.
When looking at sites like this one Travelsim eSIM- International eSIM for 200+ destinations it seems that they are limiting the esim to certain brands/models of phones such as iphones, Samsung, etc …
This shouldn’t matter for the FP4 no? Esim is an esim, or are these made specific for the models mentionned above?
Thanks for your advice!

Well, I’d say it’s a gamble. I don’t see why it should be restricted to certain phones - except that they have not tested others and thus cannot guarantee that it works. Still, from my understanding eSIM is a universal standard that should work in any compliant device. FP4 was not listed for my operator, but it still works anyway, for example.

On the other hand they write explicitly:

If your device is not listed above, you’ll need to order a regular, physical TravelSim SIM card.

The eSIM is only compatible with the above-listed devices.

This might only be to avoid customer support issues, though. In the end I think the only way will be to actually try it out - or go with the regular SIM they offer…

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Thanks! I’ll give it a go I guess!

Just a quick update. I returned from the US and used “Yesim” - this worked fine (app and (Polish?) VPN). Top-ups through app. The app recognised the FP4 as compatible with esim when doung the setup. I also tried “Airalo” but this didn’t work at all …

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Thanks for your valuable feedback. i think it’s helpful for everyone travelling to, but also permanently residing in the USA so I have allowed myself to move your topic into this one. :slight_smile:

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That’s good news. Would you mind adding this to the wiki so that others can easily find this information?

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Done. Also confirmed that Orange (Belgium) works.

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Recently got the Fairphone 4, and I’m having the same issues as Frankt with AT&T - texting and data work but calls are completely non-functional and AT&T support hasn’t been able to help. Anyone looking at this thread - T-Mobile might be your only option for Fairphone compatibility. I’ll sadly have to return mine :frowning: Hope you guys come to the US soon!

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Hello, sorry to hear. You might want to consider offering your FP4 here in this forum. Even with the challenges you describe, there might still be quite a couple of people in the USA interested given the device is already in the country and won’t need paying expensive import fees and the like on top.

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You can’t try T-Mobile? They have a $15/month and $25/month plan I believe. I’m keeping the rest of my family plan phones & smartwatch on AT&T until T-Mobile’s 3G service is completely shut down and I can be sure the FP4 is still working.
How much did you pay for your FP4?
Good luck either way.

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I might offer up the Fairphone, but it’s still within the return period so I might be better off returning it to the reseller. I was considering trying T-Mobile, but I’m currently on a family plan with extended family and a single line with T-mobile would be far more expensive - especially if there’s a risk thee phone will stop working when 3G goes down.

I paid about $600 in total

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The pre-paid monthly T-Mobile SIM card plan is $15/month plus taxes & fees, and can be cancelled any time. It’s not like the regular family plans that can be a contract for months or years.
I understand the problem though.
One drawback is you’re getting a new phone number. I’m not willing to port my main phone number to T-Mobile until I’m sure the 3G shutdown won’t effect it. So I can’t really test it as a daily driver using the new phone number (my friends and clients would be very confused!} So I can only test it lightly for now.

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Hello,
I will soon immigrate to the United States (Minnesota), my current phone is not compatible with American networks (oneplus one 2014), so I have to buy a new phone.
I would like to buy an FP4 with /e/OS but first, I would like to know if it is really compatible and if so with which US carriers?
Thank you for your answers.

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Hello and welcome,

My FP4 was cut off of AT&T’s network in Florida a few weeks ago, so I do not recommend trying AT&T.

It works now on a T-Mobile pre-paid monthly plan. They checked the IMEI of the FP4 and told me that it is supported by them. That is encouraging. T-Mobile has not shut down it’s entire 3G network yet (supposedly by August 2022), so I am hoping that it will keep working.

I have not tried /e/OS with the FP4. Unless you are going to install it yourself, you have to buy a FP4 from the eSolutions shop, have it sent to a European address and bring it here.

Good luck with you move!

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Frankt, I know it is some months off, but would you mind committing to giving us an update in August (or whenever T-mobile shuts down their 3G network)? I would definitely like to abandon Verizon and my dying pixel for a more sustainable and ethical option but I’d also hate to buy the FP4 at its current price only to get 4 months out of it.

(I honestly might buy it anyway just to support the Fairphone enterprise, I imagine if they become successful enough they might decide to attempt a foothold in the U.S… I know a very large number of people are getting more and more frustrated with the lack of opportunity to buy ethical and sustainable technology. At the very least maybe soon their success will force their competition to place higher value on human lives required to produce their device rather than imperceptible micro-improvements to their already sufficient cameras).

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Hi and welcome to the forum

As this is a user forum whom are you asking for an update, and an update on what exaclty ? :slight_smile:

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To the user @frankt I guess :wink:

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Just to let you guys know, the problem with AT&T is not that the device is incapable of working on the network, just that AT&T won’t allow it. They’re operating on a “whitelist” system of devices now and should not be considered an open GSM network. Devices not on the list will not connect to VoLTE and thus cannot function without 3G. This is not a failing of the Fairphone at all.

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Livebait,

Yes, I will post here once T-Mobile has shut down its entire 3G network, and let you know if I am still able to get voice/sms/mobile data.
Good luck to you!

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Yes, this is true. My FP4 worked fine on AT&T until they shut down the last of their 3G network. It was about one month after they said it would be shut down. So you can’t trust that any carrier’s shut down will be on time, and not staggered.