Fairphone owners in the USA

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420

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 couldnā€™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 ā€œtakeā€. 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 canā€™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.

Iā€™m using the stock Android that came on the phone, Android 14. I know everyoneā€™s recommendation here is to use Lineage, but I was under the impression that it isnā€™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. Iā€™ve done the ##2886## thing, and it says that the hardware is working correctly.

I havenā€™t gone through this entire megathread, but Iā€™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. Iā€™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 ā€œSet Preferred Network Typeā€ was set to ā€œNR/LTE/GSM/WCDMAā€. I changed it to ā€œNR/LTEā€ 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!

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421

This was SO helpful - But for me, the code to get to the ā€˜Set Preferred Network Typeā€™ was *#*#4636#*#*, then select Phone information - the dropdown for ā€˜Set Preferred Network Typeā€™ 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 - ā€˜HOMEā€™ is the state youā€™re looking for. Give it a couple minutes between changes for it to settle down,

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422

I just got a FP5 from Clove and Iā€™m on T-Mobile in Texas. I was having all the problems you described (no mobile data + people i called reporting they couldnā€™t hear me), and this seemed to get it working. I appreciate yā€™all sharing tips like this. Iā€™m hoping to use this thing until 2032!

423

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 ā€œSet Preferred Network Typeā€ from ā€œNR/LTE/GSM/WCDMAā€ to ā€œNR/LTEā€. After that, I got Internet, but still with some problems:

  1. When I switch on my phone, it takes ~1ā€™30ā€™ā€™ 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 Iā€™m connected to Wi-Fi, I have no internet problems, but the connection triangle gets empty, and, of course, I donā€™t have phone connection.

  4. SMS service does not work properly. Either I donā€™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 donā€™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!

424
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426

Hi everyone!

I have moved to Seattle recently and choose ā€œUltraā€ 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!

427

Check to see if the ā€œ4G Callingā€ 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

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428

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.

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429

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

430

I recently got my fp6 from clove technology in the UK. At first I had Verizon here in the USA. Once I got my fp6 I knew I would need to switch over to T-Mobile. The phone worked great on Verizon but of course Verizon has a whitelist and after 48hrs on Verizon I had lost volte, thatā€™s the first sign your going to loose all your provisioning soon. Once I switch T-Mobile worked great, data, voice both LTE/5g worked. At first I could not activate T-Mobile visual voicemail but that also eventually worked. Iā€™ve always used Google voice as it offers text translation free. So I looked up the self service code mmi codes and put it in, code accepted but then the reply is always failed. I also tried to do the same under the Google phone app settings. The option there never opens and you canā€™t access call forwarding since it canā€™t read the settings from the carrier.

So with that I called both my mvno and T-Mobile directly. Both told me the same thing my fairphone 6 is sim locked, at least on T-Mobile side. Of course my fp6 is not sim unlocked I have full access to voice/data. So whatā€™s going on? My theory is about a yr or two ago T-Mobile wanted to stop either stolen or unpaid for phones coming to T-Mobile for service. At one time you could take an unpaid for T-Mobile phone and go to an mvno under T-Mobile and the phone would work. T-Mobile solution is to block all unknown imeiā€™s so any unknown manufacturer gets lumped in to this group of phones T-Mobile wonā€™t look at or help with. Itā€™s not a whitelist at least like at&t/Verizon. So Iā€™m wondering if any mint sim users are able to use Google voice with conditional call forwarding on there fairphone?

431

Murena looking for :us: US-based :iphone:Fairphone :six: testers:

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432

Guys, there have been some reports of issues with the latest update for FP6 for some users in US ( here on the forum and Reddit).

If you are on FP6 and using Mint Mobile in US, or perhaps also some other networks, you may consider delaying an update till that is sorted.

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433

Someone in the USA reports her Murena Fairphone 6 has arrived:

The product page in the Murena Shop suggests :green_circle: Green is currently on stock.

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434

Are there currently any live sources of Fairphone 4 batteries in the USA? In early 2024 I got the Murena FP4; this evening, I found my battery had started swelling, and so I removed it from my phone and am now researching logistics for disposing of swollen lithium batteries. Murena currently lists replacement batteries as out of stock. Iā€™m unsure what alternatives might exist, and would rather not be stuck with my phone batteryless for too long; thus I figure itā€™s worth asking here in case any other options exist that Iā€™m not currently aware of.

435

I see that it is available with iFixit in Europe: Fairphone 4 Battery

You could consider having it shipped to a mail forwarding service like https://www.mailboxde.com and then they would ship it over to you in the U.S. Have used them in the past to get Fairphone parts (not a battery though) and they have been reliable as a mail forwarding service ā€“ shipping via DHL usually. In addition to shipping expect to pay a little in tariffs as well.

As far as disposing off the battery goes I would www.call2recycle.org to see what your options could be.

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436

I would have been happy to volunteer. I had e /os/ running until I bricked it Fairphone 6 unbrick: Trapped in fastboot mode with locked bootloader and corrupted stock ROM - #107 by Greenflare and havenā€™t been able to find a way to ship it to the Fairphone repair center from here in North America inspite of having a label from Fairphone Support as they want it to be shipped and received from someone in the EU.

437

Thanks for the pointer! Unfortunately, Mailboxde seems unwilling to ship phone batteries outside of phones. From https://www.mailboxde.com/prohibited-goods.html:

The lithium-ion batteries/cells that are not packed with or installed with the equipment (UN3480)

A similar restriction applies on forward2me, which Iā€™ve used in similar contexts in the past, and on another three EU-to-USA forwarding services I checked just in case. So it seems like thereā€™s probably a regulatory barrier against ā€œforward from the EUā€ as a strategy here.

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438

Even before the recent tariff/de minimis fun, shipping lithium-containing batteries was really tricky and expensive. From what I could work out with our local post office manager, shipping devices with the batteries in them is okay as long as itā€™s in the original packaging (there was some uncertainty over whether it needed to be sealed). But they said they wouldnā€™t accept replacement batteries, even if they were sealed in the original packaging. They said they thought Fedex would handle just the battery, but at ~3x standard prices. Iā€™m guessing youā€™re running into the other side of that. (I was trying to ship an FP5 back to the store I bought it from in Switzerland for screen warranty service in summer of 2024, it ended up being cheaper to order a new screen from Clove).

439

This might be an option: Worldwide Lithium Shipment from German: Air, Sea & Road.

Though Reddit has mixed reviews about them.

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440

I asked in the /e/OS forum whether Murena have plans to restock ā€¦ Buying a battery in the usa - #11 by AnotherElk - Fairphone - /e/OS community

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