Fairphones in Australia šŸ‡¦šŸ‡ŗ

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I had exactly this issue with MMS on Fairphone with amaysim (optus). Couldnā€™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 couldnā€™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

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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.

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Thanks for posting this,
Iā€™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 Iā€™m in the process of switching back to Amaysim, Iā€™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, Iā€™ll report back on whether the functionality persists on that plan or not once Iā€™m switched back over.

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The MMS fix happened for me before 5g implementation, so I donā€™t think theyā€™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 canā€™t access it.

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Good to know, Not sure on 5g reboots myself, being that other phones seem to have a similar issue independent of SOC, Iā€™d best assume thatā€™s software / protocol related over it being a hardware issue so perhaps thatā€™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 itā€™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)).
Donā€™t believe thereā€™s any other way to realistically play with a qualcomm SOC without root and at that point itā€™s just best to leave it.

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

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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 Iā€™ll report back.

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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 youā€™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, Iā€™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.

    Iā€™d suggest referring to my prior replies in this thread relating to troubleshooting this issue if youā€™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.
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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?

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

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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 wifeā€™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 itā€™s not in their list of devices.
Somewhere else I read that itā€™s a good idea to get a new SIM for a new phone as it seems there some memory in the ā€˜systemā€™ 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?

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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 - donā€™t press call) a whole lot of useful information comes up including:
Voice network type: LTE
and further down
VoLTE provisioned in the ā€˜onā€™ position (greyed out, which fooled me at first - it just means I canā€™t change it).
My wifeā€™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.

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For those who want to try ā€¦ *#*#4636#*#* ā€¦ The forum software uses asterisks for formatting :wink: .
(The post editor has a ā€œPreformatted textā€ button for this.)

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Go further in this menu to see if VoLTE is available or not (dont forget to turn off Wlan or at least wifi calling)

Three Dots upper right - IMS Status

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Thanks. I will keep an eye on that in future.

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All that would have been really useful at the beginning. Pity it doesnā€™t appear prominently in the various guides.
I am afraid to try it on my old phone - it might show I had VoLTE all along!
The fairphone 5 is a nice phone, if a bit expensive here in Australia with freight, customs and GST on top of the actual purchase price.

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Hi! Iā€™m having the same issue with my FP5 dropping to 3G with Telstra. Did you get anywhere with Optus?

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No problems. I did however ring my provider (Moose Mobile) and they confirmed that VoLTE was provisioned on my account.
To check use *#*#4636#*#* as mentioned above.
Click the 3 dots and select IMS service status. You should see ā€˜Voice over LTE: Availableā€™. If not then ring Telstra and ask for it to be provisioned on your service.

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Following the above steps to check my FP3+, in the ā€œIMS service statueā€ I see ā€œVoice over LTE: Unavailableā€
I am with Boost (Telstra network).

Does anyone know how to get FP3+ working with Telstra??

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Ring Boost and ask for it!
I imagine your service is provisioned to match your previous phone.

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