šŸ‡µšŸ‡¹ Looking for a Portuguese eSIM compatible with FP4

Iā€™m in portgual and need a Portuguese phone number. Slapped a second sim in my FP3.

Bought the new FP4. They removed the second sim slot, in addition to the audio jack, microphones still breaking easily and now no longer being on a modular part, with a USB port that recognises mics as earphonesā€¦ Whatever.

They proudly boast you can get an esimā€¦ so I get a vodafone esim andā€¦ they arenā€™t compatible with fairhpones, because itā€™s a fā€™in obscure ass phone.

They canā€™t force us to use an alternate system that is not in place anywhere. This goddamn phone has caused no end of problems due to their atrocious planning and design.

You donā€™t force a systemic change when there is no infrastructure in place to support it.

Long shot but does anyone know a portguese esim that will work with this stupud FP4

Maybe your shot was a bit to longā€¦

If you hope for help then you should rethink your articulation

And welcome to the forum

6 Likes

Hi Tobias and welcome to the forum.

Sounds like youā€™re having a real pain in the ^r$e

You can tag your topic with a flag and contact other Portuguese users.

Will add the flag and . . .

2 Likes

So Fairphone didnā€™t include a second hardware sim, they didnā€™t remove it as that is part of the specs.

Did you buy it without reading or did you expect every network to provide an e-sim.

Sadly some networks/carriers are a bit slow at adapting, but pretty sure all will.

It also means you can have a ā€˜numberā€™ of e-sims on the same phone as well as the single traditional sim hard card.

I use two eSIM in my FP4, from different providers (congstar & sipgate, german not portuguese) and they work without any problem.
This sounds like a vodafone problem to me, have you tried it with their customer support? :thinking:

Oh, and this is a user forum, please contactsupport if you need to reach someone at Fairphone for technical assistance.

7 Likes

As @hirnsushi if you think that is the case you had better inform Vodafone. Surprisingly fairphone work with Vodafone so they should both be interested in your discovery.

Could you change the title a bit, I could but you may find it upsetting :slight_smile:

2 Likes

Same here: Congstar eSim without any problems - even though not officially supported. It is a standard after all. ā€œNot supportedā€ in this case probably mostly means: Not tested by the mobile provider in question, but I canā€™t rule out that there are providers which actually donā€™t support this combination or block it until deemed compatible. Contacting your provider should provide you with an answer to that.

In general I do not think your tone fits well into this forum, even if you might be frustrated right now and I can understand your general disappointment that things are not going the way you expected.

11 Likes

You expect the same or more features from a new/upgraded model of the same brand not less. I thought whatever new features were on it I would discover when it came out, I trusted them to make a good phone in high spirits and good faith. I wonā€™t make that mistake again.

I donā€™t think the providers are being slow here, they have no reason to switch to esim unless they want to. It was entirely fairphone unilaterally doing something prematurely and thoughtlessly without even clearly advertising or warning about it.

I donā€™t need multiple esims, I need the same 2 sims I already had on the fairphone 3, they have created a problem that didnā€™t exist before. Bah. Iā€™ll have to figure something out in the UK. This will probably be the last fairphone I purchase.

Well itā€™s nice to know Germans donā€™t have those problems at least. If only those networks were available in portugal. Such is life.

Apple have indicated that they want to switch to eSIM only at some point, and if that goes ahead every mobile operator will have to follow.

Vodafone does not officially support the phone, but I have seen on a Fairphoners meeting that a Vodafone Germany eSIM worked without any problem nonetheless. There is a good chance that a Vodafone Portugal eSIM does the same if you can convince Vodafone to give you an eSIM.

1 Like

The available SIM slots are clearly mentioned on the product page:

One physical Nano-SIM slot (4FF), 5G enabled* One eSIM, 5G enabled*

eSIM are the future, if you like it or not. I for one am really happy that I can finally use 3 SIM in my phone, makes separating different contexts so much easier.

4 Likes

Odd to say that, as ~~

UPDATE: see below

Yes, I mean for eSIM, they donā€™t list the FP4 yet. But this doesnā€™t mean that you canā€™t use an eSIM.

@amoun Not really that odd, as I wrote the text you quoted when talking to you about a different device (the FP3) and a different country (assuming the conversation you are having is still within the scope of the OP request, i.e. Portugal). Vodafone is a big company, and each countryā€™s ā€œdivisionā€ works differently. Always keep it in mind when dealing with big corporations that offer services or sell goods.
Also, the ā€œIf memory serves me wellā€ bit was the key component of that sentence :stuck_out_tongue:

Regarding the topic in general, I cannot help, but customer support might.

4 Likes

Hi

I was thinking more in general, but the query was FP4 and Portuguese related.

Oops! Phone Coop not Vodafone

I think in the UK someone had a problem getting an e-SIM for their Vodafone

Oops! it was with the phone coop

I have found this posted on 20 May 2021 Planet news

In 2019, Vodafone and Fairphone announced a strategic partnership to bring the Fairphone 3 to Vodafone customers in several European markets. We also agreed to collaborate on best practice and share knowledge on key industry sustainability issues, including the circular economy, electronic waste and responsible sourcing.

1 Like

That link is a much better and stronger argument than any words I ever said, nice find!

All I am saying is: there is nothing odd about agreements being different across products and countries.

If you want to know more about compatibility and availability, reach out to Customer Support. They are far more prepared than I am on any of these topics.

2 Likes

I reached out to CS and they couldnā€™t give me a list of ANY companies that did Esims for the FP4. Which means they didnā€™t even look at the viability of this before forcing this change on us.

I admit I didnā€™t look close at the specs because you assume the new model of something will have the same or better features not less.

This isnā€™t like removing a tape player from a car. Esim might be the future but this is the present, they jumped the gun by an astonishing degree here.

I paid 15 euros for a doctors appointment I coudlnā€™t complete due to some stupid issue where they could only text my portuguese number which I now dont have easy access to. The drama continues.

Vodafone were the only company I bought an esim off but the QR code failed with an error message and did not work. 2 vodafone shops and online support said im out of luck and blamed FP.

How did you try to add the QR code? You need to do so from the SIM card settings, not using a regular QR code scanner app.

2 Likes

If there is really no provider offering eSIM (for the FP4) in Portugal then I would blame Portuguese provider being behind current technology, as this technology is not new and especially important for all devices not having dual SIM (like e.g. Apple). We have several provider in different countries confirmed to work. My provider e.g. has a list with supported devices. The FP4 is not listed but they sell it. So I asked them if its really not supported and they stated that this list is just listing some example phones and all phones supporting eSIM would work. So its easy for Vodafone to blame FP, but whatā€™s the argument? If they know whoā€™s fault it is they should be able to name the fault and this would help FP to fix it.

4 Likes

Good to know, I always assumed without further investigation eSIMs were just as well 1:1 per ā€œslotā€.
So you have 3 registered. Interesting.

1 Like