Well that’s the point, the FP2 can’t make phone calls via 4G, therefor he repeatably asks for VoLTE support.
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Is that a software or hardware limitation ? 
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Not sure, I’m not an Android developer, but I would guess it’s software.
From LineageOS blog:
VoLTE requires OEM support. Please stop asking us about it.
btw, if I understood well:
- Suitzerland is dropping 2G but keeps 3G
- EU is dropping 3G but keeps 2G
So we should all have a fallback, correct?
EDIT: similar information from UBports blog:
To be able to make VoLTE calls, the phone’s operating system, its modem firmware and the mobile network operator all have to support it.
[…] the UBports Foundation commissioned cellular network specialist sysmocom to create a plan to add VoLTE support to Ubuntu Touch. This blog article summarizes their findings.
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It looks like other companies have issues with the Snapdragon 801 chipset and VoLTE:
And if anything from what people write in the links is true then it’ll be pretty hard for Fairphone to implement VoLTE on the FP2 (although that’s not what I’d like to read, either):
Long thread told short: The assumption is that SD801 supports VoLTE but Qualcomm might have had some issues with that and thus won’t deliver the required drivers anymore.
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More on this here, including Fairphone developer statements:
Sometimes people do not want to understand that some work takes so much effort that a small team of developers just cannot cope with a challenge like this one…
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Thanks for the link, that’s indeed a detailed answer from the FP team. More than that, I doubt that you can find asking to this community forum 
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If you’re happy with 2G on your smartphone. I’d argue 2G is useful for things like IoT (if you have not rolled out say LoraWAN or are stuck with some smart device from say electricity), but for smartphones in this age where websites are this bloated? Nope. Maybe if you’re RMS and use a remote shell for e-mail, and e-mail yourself websites.
3G has a full PPPoA stack, which increases latency, reduces throughput / increases overhead, and increases the battery usage. 4G/5G don’t suffer from this. They’re full TCP/IP stack. They’re far more efficient for battery.
So what the Dutch providers do is allow^H^H^H^H^Hforce all smartphone usage to upgrade to 4G (standard now, available for like 7 years, and affordable past years), allowing to reuse 3G frequencies for 4G/5G (!!), while providing 2G for old legacy devices (a LOT!), including dumbphones.
Perhaps 2G is good enough for some light IM usage though.
The masses had no smartphone back then, but some people surely did. A friend of mine had a smartphone for over 2G, using PuTTy to administer mainframes over telnet and later SSH. At night. While being intoxicated. 
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You only need the 2g/3g fallback for Calls, else you can still use 4g for mobile data, so there really should be no issue for the FP2 at the moment
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You’re right, my bad. I’ve had that feature disabled for a long time for security reasons so I forgot about it.
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3G is already dead and being dismantled all over Europe…
…unless you want to use a phone as a phone…
Please do not allege motives I do not have.
I fully understand the complexity of the issue (being an ISTQB certified professional software tester). I never said it would be easy. No one did.
The problem is, this does not remove the pure necessity! With 3G already dead and 2G having just one more year, this limits the useful life of FP2 to just 14 months from now on.
In Germany there is no end of 2G coming and therefore the FP2 are still usable. Set them to 4G and everything is fine.
Or do you have any official proof for this generalized statement? If you are speaking of Switzerland or any other country to avoid panic and confusion, please state so.
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The device is still usable without any mobile data. Its just a matter of perception of useful. Given the device is no longer supported by Qcomm, the radio’s are IMO not usable anymore, since they don’t receive firmware updates.
No sure I get it, but last firmware update is from 2019 I think, what would mean I should not be able to use my FP2, but I’m using it. Since 3G is dropped its set to 4G, so I have mobile data and when I make a call the phone uses 2G
Not be able to use it? You are able to use it.
But if you ask any security researcher they’d recommend against it.
The device is very likely vulnerable to KNOB, BIAS, and SweynTooth attacks.
(Then again they’d also recommend against IoT devices, and many people still use these.)
My point is that you, and everyone else, should make an informed decision.
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But 2G is still working, where 3G s dismantled and vice versa.
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KNOB is CVE-2019-9506, which is part of the August 2019 patch level for Android 7+. As both FP2 and FP3(+) are on 2021 patch levels right now, I would assume both devices to be not vulnerable. The CVE number is even explicitly mentioned in the Fairphone OS 19.11.2 release notes.
I can’t find any information on BIAS / CVE-2020-10135 in the security bulletins.
EDIT: two other CVEs from BIAS (CVE-2020-26555 and CVE-2020-26558) are in the June 2021 patch level, which the FP2/3(+) have received as well. This page mentions AOSP, rather than the SoC vendors, as affected which means the update wouldn’t rely on Qualcomm support.
The SweynTooth page does not make any mention of vulnerabilities in devices with a Qualcomm SoC & Bluetooth chip.
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