Fairphones in Australia 🇦🇺

[pcam]

Hi Mate,

Yes it certainly can. I run NetBank, ING, St George no problems. They have the official Google app store so everything works the same as Samsung etc, just no bloatware. Tap and pay also works fine.

Phill

[consequences]

For those looking for MMS issues I seem to be your greatest source of information at this time, so prepare for a wall of text and go near to the bottom (line 48 of 105, lol), also note, I’m not proof reading this again, it’s too long so excuse the likely many mistakes

Figured I’d make an account and post cause of the hell I’ve just been through with the FairPhone 4 or more accurately Amaysim (Optus).

To answer the questions on the topic.

1. Why were you interested in FP
   Custom ROM support (specifically CalyX OS), Repairability, SD Card support and the ability to remove the front facing camera.

2. What made you switch
   My last phone (pixel 5 (number 2, first one manufacturing issues) < device from hell) died (battery, random shutdowns, power buttons stopped working)

3. Where’d you get it from
   Bought it from Clover, great store if you want to import the phone to Aus

4. Do people you know show interest in FF4
   Nope, they want the latest and breakiest

5. Your city and provider
   Adelaide, Amaysim (Optus re-packager) currently

6. Issues you’ve encountered

99% of the phone is perfect,
Issue 1: Only real complaint would be that the default camera app works amazingly well but isn’t available for download from f-droid to my knowledge for use on CalyX OS as is my preference
Issue 2: I’ll direct you to the bottom of my post after 8

7. Pros and Cons of FP
   Pros

• Custom ROM support
• Easy to repair (battery replacements and extreme ease of individual part replacement by myself instead of a repair shop)
• Can modify it as I like
• SD Card
• Great CPU/GPU choice will last for the ages
  Cons
• Screen is somewhat too large at 6.3", my preference starts and ends at 6"
• (a half issue for me now but) Where’s the bloody headphone jack and the spiel about it being more sustainable by removing it is crap, I have tons of perfectly good AUX gear, what do I throw it, I’m not buying crappy converters that break after 15 minutes of use, I have 4 broken ones now, I’m done

8. Tips if Fairphone branched into Australia

• Setup direct shipping to Australia (and add into the Australian price the import tax on the webpage so people can see the price jump for 1000+)
• Cooperate with our hostage takers… oh I mean mobile providers, get text, calls and MMS working on all of these guys consistently and your basically set for the Australian market, maybe you’ll need to change out the mobile communications SOC for complete 5g coverage, I believe your missing one band but beyond that you’ve got a great product that I’m my opinion will with proper support grow very big at an ever increasing pace so long as other manufacturers don’t stand in the way
• Other than that a word of warning, take caution to contracting your phone sales through specific stores/corps, sell it yourself off your website as #1 and anyone else can buy and re-sell as they please, it’s the better way to do it for independence sake

And so to the MMS issues and issue 2 with the Fair Phone 4
My Details:
Provider: Amaysim (Optus Reseller)
Sim Type: Physical
Phone: Fairphone 4 (purchased through Clove Mid January 2023)

Issue: I can’t send or receive MMS (images, long text, audio), mobile data and normal texts work fine

What have I done:

• Reset the phone
• Installed messenger QKSMS to try alternative to (google text and later AOSP default messenger app)
• Installed custom ROM CalyX OS
• Verified APN detail validity
• Deleted existing APN details and re-entered them manually
• Tried changing my preferred band
• Mobile Data On/Off, Wifi On/Off on both of those
• Played with permissions
• Reset the phone 4 times twice each OS
• Changed compression size for images, everything from (auto, 2000kb all the way to 100kb) changing many other settings all the way along
• Broke and pushed around MMS APN configurations to check if something was wrong my end or perhaps there was a working alternate configuration
• Testing the SIM on two other phones (both work)
• And literally hundreds of other little different things all over the period of 4 days

What have I done with my provider:

• Went through APN settings
• Did restarts and the most basic of basic website instruction page based troubleshooting spanning 4 hours of time wasting insanity
• Replaced my SIM with a $2 replacement SIM and transferred my details to it
• Used another person I knows Amaysim sim
• Got them to re-enable MMS functionality and refresh their configuration database for my phone
• Also had them run troubleshooters which wipe my account fresh to view only the information relevant to this moment

The grand results:

• A grand old nothing
• Sprinkled with Telstra fueled rage when discovering Calls, Text & MMS work with no issue when using a Telstra SIM from another person I know, It worked immediately

Current Solution:

• Use Telstra

Why the issues:
Entirely speculation but based upon my lack of understanding of how mobile communication systems are set up in the modern era, assuming it’s setup using the internet and some front facing APIs, I assume Optus likely is blocking MMS access from devices specific devices or more likely having setup a Whitelist of allowed devices. ( would probably be helpful avoiding botting and other unauthorized use cases of their network )

Considering how the failures occur

Receiving ( I see the MMS message come in, attempts to download result in an endless wait cycle for download )

Sending (Attempts to send result in an endless sending cycle (it’s literally end less) )

I assume there’s no blocking setup Call and Text message side but instead where concerning the MMS APIs perhaps there only blocking/filtering for a route responsible for MMS data downloads/uploads but not for MMS availability checking (ie ping that route to see if the route details are correct) & event forwarding (being that I receive notification of incoming MMS).

Changing APN details for MMS sees failures occur immediately meaning that the MMS APIs are accessible and I assume providing the expected results so there’d likely be no incompatibility MMS protocol wise considering the success other people have had within Australian networks.

And so if you’re having issues with the Fairphone 4.
Specifically MMS issues and your in Australia, you’re probably with Optus or a reseller and you’d best go strangle your provider for causing you grief as I’ll hopefully be doing tomorrow.

If it’s an honest mistake then my fury can be satiated but until then I have plans to move to Woolworths mobile plans as they have a ever attractive $25 22GB Telstra based plan or otherwise someone cheaper.

I’d rather loose out on some benefits for being with them for I think something like 7 years at this point, so long that I’ve progressively sanded my SIM down from full size to Micro over the years and only just replaced it yesterday in response to my issues.

So basically save yourself days of time and switch operators to a telstra reseller, I’ll come back again if I sort out my issues with Amaysim / Optus or end up having issues with Woolworths.

[yvmuell]

Will MMS be alive moving forward in Australia? My understanding is this method of communication has been retired a few days ago or will retire soon in Germany depending on the provider used.

BTW welcome to the community.

[consequences]

I’ve not heard anything about MMS being retired here, I’d assume it’s here to stay for the time being although I can’t say I’d have a problem if our telcos decide to move to a newer API/Standard considering the split that exist are mostly there because of legacy support that’s long been dropped in place of a fully digital system

[consequences]

To provide an update on Fairphone 4 MMS issues with Amaysim/Optus.
I spent over a week screwing around, got to L2 amaysim support and optus support as well through their engineers and it was a royal waste of time, these people dindn’t want to do anything and just kept asking me to do the same thing every couple of days, ie send an mms and tell us when you sent it etc.

And so what’s happening in this case
From what I’ve managed to gather from the support guys, my phone fully supports their network and communicates properly with their systems but when attempting to send data through to MMS they have some form of internal server error when handling the data and it ignores my request.

Gee sounds an awful lot like how failures occur when providers are filtering phones out by IMEI for manufacturer/model.

And so the fixes:

• Change IMEI number, I was considering this but in Australia the laws aren’t clear in the slightest anymore relating to IMEI modifications. (if someone knows for certain if this is legal here do let me know as I’d like to do as much)
  I’ll also note that I don’t have an IMEI indicating manufacture by Fairphone themselves, It looks like the reseller changed the code increasing it by a few digits so I imagine changing this to the default may have helped or otherwise just changing the IMEI to my last phone would more than likely fix my issue.
• Alternatively changing to Telstra would fix my issues and being that Woolworths mobile is cheaper I’ve decided to go to them.

And so now having changed over I can say on Woolworths mobile the MMS issues are still not fixed, now at this point I haven’t contacted their support and so I don’t know whether it’s just as simple as activating MMS or if this is something more however in the coming weeks I’ll be having a chat with them and if it’s something more I’ll come back to edit this post if possible indicating as much. In that case just go with Telstra.

I’ll also note one change I’ve noticed between Amaysim and Woolies Mobile and that change is that call quality is significantly better, this was one complaint I got here and there and thought nothing of it but having changed over it seems better than my last phone even so perhaps there was more than just MMS issues on Amaysim.
Mind you as well I tried playing with wifi calling and all that while on amaysim with no improvement, I assume they disabled that functionality or otherwise disabled 4g calling which is what I’m using on woolies mobile (not even wifi calling) and I’ve seen a significant improvement.

[katoiam]

Gday,

I’m reaching out to see if there are any other fp3 users around the sunshine Coast or brisbane, who might be willing to help me!

I have the following problem :

Need broken /cracked but functional Fp3 screen!

Hello, I have the following problem: Fairphone 3 coloured pixelated screen won't revert back to normal! I need a screen to see if the screen is the problem, so not overly excited about buying a brand new screen that might be useless! Does anyone on here have an old broken, but still works enough fp3 screen? Cheers, Liam

Thanks in advance

[Simon_Cole]

I’m using a new FairPhone 4 in Brisbane on the Aldi network… can’t send MMS images or audio. Has there been any progress with this? From the look of this post (from ‘consequences’) the only solution as of last year is to change provider to Telstra, which I don’t want to do. Aldi insisted I test the sim card in another phone, which I did and it sends MMS fine. So they’ll tell me the problem is with the handset. I’ve reconfigured the APN settings according to Aldi’s website recommended settings and nothing changed.

[consequences]

Hi Simon,

Due to my work, I’ve been unable to go any further with testing this issue and am simply not using MMS at the moment.

As far as it goes, MMS will likely not work on any Optus operator however seems to work on Telstra, whether that’s limited to just Telstra or maybe some Telstra re-branders allow it I’ve not a clue.

If you were going to spend time talking with your operator I would ask in relation to international modem support for their network being that the included modem is exactly that, this being my next train of though in relation to troubleshooting as the issue don’t actually lay with the phone per-say as by what I’ve been told by my past operator.

My next steps

• I was planning to talk to my operator (woolworths) sometime next year, when I get the chance and ask about support relating to International modems as this phone has, maybe the functionality is disabled on their end for international modems just in case?

• Beyond that, I was planning to purchase a number of sims (post-paid, lowest cost options) from different operators to check whether they function or not. Once again not getting around to that anytime soon.

Also a quick side note which may be helpful if anyone hears complaints about call quality.

• Turn off 4G Calling, I’m on a custom ROM so not sure if that’s relevant to all or not but in my case when talking to people not connected to the same tower, this reduced my audio output quality significantly
• Also, the against ear call mode uses the microphone at the bottom of the phone and it’s easy to cover / rub over, had my fair share of complaints until I realized as much.

[Simon_Cole]

Thanks for a speedy reply, consequences. I sent a support request ticket into FP… if they reply with anything helpful, I’ll get back to you (I doubt it - sounds like you’ve done a lot of research). I wont’ bother contacting Aldi Support. I’m sure they’ll insist it’s the handset. Your idea of trying different providers’ sims is probably the better way to go if indeed it’s something to do with their modem settings… that’s too technical for me. I guess I’ll learn to live with workarounds (apps on wifi)… When I visit Poland next week, I’ll probably buy a sim there and then I’ll know if MMS works there. Cheers.

[mrdavidbacon]

I had exactly this issue with MMS on Fairphone with amaysim (optus). Couldn’t send or receive.

No idea why, but this suddenly started working a couple of months ago. There was a new icon in the status bar that I couldn’t work out what it was for or get rid of it, but mms started working after that.

Got a new problem today for a separate thread. My plan has been upgraded to 5g, but this is causing my phone to randomly restart. Dropping back to 4g resolves the issue. Another mystery

[yvmuell]

The 5g reboot thing happens in Europe as well for some. So I think the only who can solve this im Australia is the provider as I guess FP support will not help, as long as the phone is used in a not supported country.

[consequences]

Thanks for posting this,
I’ve now borrowed an Amaysim sim from another phone and can confirm MMS worked immediately for me but not switching back to the Woolworths sim.

Looks like Amaysim has either allowed the phone to use their service or otherwise support has come about with the implementation of 5g support?

The plan in question was a $30 dollar plan which includes 5g.
As such I’m in the process of switching back to Amaysim, I’ll be moving onto a cheaper non 5g plan as per I barely use data and such a thing would provide additional context for others, I’ll report back on whether the functionality persists on that plan or not once I’m switched back over.

[mrdavidbacon]

The MMS fix happened for me before 5g implementation, so I don’t think they’re related.

Not sure what the issue is with random reboots when connected to 5g. Setting the phone to use a maximum of 4g resolves the issue. Oddly, I was near Terrigal in NSW and could get 5g, but Croydon in Sydney I can’t access it.

[consequences]

Good to know, Not sure on 5g reboots myself, being that other phones seem to have a similar issue independent of SOC, I’d best assume that’s software / protocol related over it being a hardware issue so perhaps that’ll be patched with future kernal releases.


Maybe if yourself or others are interested in playing around (though do take caution to record your initial config and restore that if changes do not work).

Accessing the below gives access to extra network related settings, potentially changing around country preference in Radio Band or otherwise could have an affect on 5g operation.

Aus has two different bands, maybe it’s an issue related to only one of the band groupings
(Could also result from the missing band support for Australia 5g for this SOC (https://www.kimovil.com/en/frequency-checker/AU/fairphone-4)).
Don’t believe there’s any other way to realistically play with a qualcomm SOC without root and at that point it’s just best to leave it.

Phone > Number Entry > ##4636## > Phone Information

[mrdavidbacon]

Amaysim 5g has been stable for me for the last couple of days. I had contacted amaysim support about this. They said they changed something about my account. If I find out what that was I’ll report back.

[consequences]

Just a final follow up relating to MMS issues with the FairPhone 4 In Australia

The FairPhone 4 SOC supports all Australian standards except for the 28ghz band used as part of the 5g standard here.
The phone has confirmed full support by Amaysim and Telstra at this time, beyond this you’ll very likely have issues.

As a side note, The SOC in question is an international chip and as a result it may be treated differently by some providers.

The phone itself works fine where relating to Data and Calls, however, MMS is dependent upon the provider and further call quality may be affected with this lesser support and with future mobile network cutoffs further issues may come about. (I believe there was talk of getting rid of 3g entirely by 2024 a number of years ago and similarly for 4g soon after though who knows with this government)

Relating to Amaysim MMS support, both 5g and non-5g plans work, I’ve now confirmed as much myself.


If you strongly prefer to stick with a specific provider and MMS does not work on your FF4 with them, you may be able to get them to enable/add/fix support for this.

• To do as much you need to raise your issue to at least L2 support and get them to actually take a look at the how the message is handled on their end, at which point getting them to raise it further may see them push a fix into their back-end pipeline to slowly trickle down over time.
  
  I’d suggest referring to my prior replies in this thread relating to troubleshooting this issue if you’d like to troubleshoot the issue in the ways that would be requested of you by support in-advance.
  Doing as much will likely save you time unless you get otherwise lucky and are assigned a good service agent that understands technology better than it consisting of magic and absolute checklists.

Also to tag you in @Simon_Cole Amaysim now has support, perhaps it's worthwhile switching, other than these issues they seem like a decent company albeit support is the usual roundabout. They're priced as low as $15 though you'll need to hit "view all plans" to see <$30 plans. In relation to Amaysim coverage, they use majority Optus towers and I believe some Telstra towers, generally, Over time, I found I've better coverage than most, this includes extremely rural and otherwise un-populated areas.

[EmilyZdanowicz]

Hi, I live in Australia and want to know how I can buy a Fairphone 5 from Australia? If this is possible, do fair phones work in Australia?

[yvmuell]

Hi and welcome to the community, I moved your post here to get some first hand experience

[t_pearce]

The telcos are closing down the G3 network. My current phone supports G4 but not VoLTE.
I purchased a fairphone 5 via Clove in the UK and it works fine but does not show VoLTE. My wife’s phone, with the same provider (Optus via Moose Mobile) shows VoLTE on the status bar.
I have not tried her SIM card in the fairphone, only mine so far.
I checked with Moose and VoLTE is enabled. Checked with Optus and according to the person there a VoLTE capable device should work even if it’s not in their list of devices.
Somewhere else I read that it’s a good idea to get a new SIM for a new phone as it seems there some memory in the ‘system’ of what your device can do.
So do any of you have VoLTE on your phones? Could it be as simple as getting a new SIM?

[t_pearce]

After further sleuthing I conclude that my phone is probably working on VoLTE.
Some sites suggested making a phone call (this causes some phones to drop back to 3G) then try using data (with wi-fi off). I did that and youtube seemed slow but the phone displayed 4G during the call.
Going further I found if you go to the dialer (as if making a phone call) and type ##4636## (works on any Android apparently - don’t press call) a whole lot of useful information comes up including:
Voice network type: LTE
and further down
VoLTE provisioned in the ‘on’ position (greyed out, which fooled me at first - it just means I can’t change it).
My wife’s phone displays VoLTE on the status bar, but it appears this can be different depending on the vendor.
My next step will be to install /e/OS on this phone.