Fairphone owners in the USA (FP2 FP3 FP4 FP5)

I live in Northern Virginia (about 1-2 hour commute to DC depending on the time of day) I’ve had my FP2 for a few months now and aside from some bugs (which I am pretty sure I caused somehow) I love it! I have at&t who support 3G and I am currently looking into adding 4G through the expansion port or something, we’ll see what is possible on that front.

The only thing so far has been that I went into DC yesterday and for whatever reason, my data was not working above ground or in the metro tunnels, which have signal repeaters at all the stations. My guess is since all the buildings are so big they have signal repeaters through the “city” that don’t work with my phone. I may get a hotspot to use when I go to places like that but since it has worked everywhere else I’ve gone in my day to day life so far I’m still pleased with this and the hassle is not so much that I can’t use it as my primary cell phone.

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I live in DC for over a month now. I commute to Bethesda, and confirm that I have no reception in the metro (though that is the case in almost all cities I have been to, so I wasn’t surprised a all). I used at&t for a month on a prepaid plan, but just switch to red pocket mobile, an internet carrier that uses at&t network, but are much cheaper. Mobile plans are much more expensive here than in Europe (as is everything here in DC).
Good to know there is a fellow fairphoner around.

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Why not start a new topic only for Fairphoners living in and around DC? :smiley: I think it is time for the US entry in the addressbook to become more localized. You could add that new DC topic there so that others find it more easily.

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I was just in DC with my FP2 the other day and couldn’t get coverage in the tunnels either (my last phone, LG v10 did work in tunnels) and have AT&T. I also didn’t have data coverage above ground, I was around the SCOTUS building, IDK if because the buildings are so big around the area they put repeaters around, that would make sense to me just a guess. Do you get fine coverage in DC above ground?

I’m new to this forum site so forgive me if this is considered “off topic”

Has anybody thought of how to add 4G to the phone through the expansion port, since you can’t get it in the USA currently? I know it uses USB protocol and there are USB dongles made for computers. I wonder if you could take the casing off one of those dongles and hook it up?

Yes, someone has thought about that.

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Hi all,
FP2 user in DC since Jan 2020 (also commuting up to Bethesda @Francois…). I’m on a T-mobile monthly contract and that worked well until a couple of months ago. It’s still just about working but call reception has got pretty scrappy.

I’m cycling up to Bethesda every day and would like to be able to make phonecalls (practically - whatsapp/signal calls) on the ride, and so I’m considering importing a FP3 so that I can be on 4G. It’s a fair amount of money to lay out if it doesn’t work though - anyone got wisdom?

Edit: I’m also increasingly aware that 3G is not going to be a thing forever

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Hi there!

I have been using my Fairphone 3 in the DC area and around Maryland since March 2020. I have TMobile and I get excellent service as well as 4G. The phone has been performing great, and I am really glad to have one. There are some slight quirks I have noticed:

The phone gets very warm when being used for long periods of time (even inside a room with AC)
Sometimes Google Photos lags or the camera wont save the pictures that were just captured
The battery gets very warm (40 C) while being charged

other than that, I love the green Fairphone case and the Fairphone 3
:slight_smile:

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Do you use an SD card? If yes, is it configured as internal or portable storage?

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Yes! I have a 64 GB sd card configured as portable storage, so the phone currently has both internal and portable storage. The camera is set to save photos to the SD card.

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Just to confirm, as there has been a misunderstanding before, when you go to Settings > Storage do you see the eject symbol to the right of the SD card?

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Yes, I see that

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Hi, I would try the following workarounds

  1. I would save the pictures on internal storage and manually move from time to time to SD
  2. Install another Galerie instead of Google Fotos, like e.g. Simple Gallery

What SD card are you using and how old is it?

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Hello from Los Angeles California USA I am looking for a FP2 main board at minimum. The main board does not need to be functional. If you happen to have a fully functional FP2 phone, I would gladly consider that as an option as well. Payment via PayPal. Thank you.

Thank you, i will explore those options :grinning:
I am using a new SanDisk card.

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Despite @yvmuell 's ideas on using the SD card I would be very reluctant to format it as internal, please read this if you haven’t already done so. All the best.

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So far no SanDisk was listed as not compatible in the wiki😉

As for getting phones to the US, I would take a look at Clove. If you don’t have a source in Eurpoe who can mail you the device, this would be a decent place to use to get it across the ocean. If you are in the US, I would suggest sticking with T-Mobile for a network. I use it here in the midwest US and it’s worked well. I’ve also heard AT&T works, but can’t confirm that myself. Either way, avoid Verizon.

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What are folks doing about AT&T’s planned shutdown of their 3G network in February '22 in the USA? They’ve told me that my FP3 will no longer work on their network (a guy in the store said they’re actually shutting down some 4G capability?), so they sent me a replacement phone and sent a message this week that they’ll be deactivating my current phone (my FP3) next week. Until now, I’ve had no trouble on AT&T. I’m trying T-Mobile, voice and text work fine but I can’t get data to turn on. Anyone having any luck with either AT&T or T-Mobile going forward?

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@andrinor and @strongthany I’ve allowed myself to move your posts here as I think it’s a better place to exchange first-hand user experience in the USA.

And welcome to the Fairphone Community Forum :+1:

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