SIM issue: Data never works, calls do

Help Fairphone 3
1

Hello,

I have an FP3 (born 2020), running Android 13 and would like to fix an odd SIM card issue.

I have tried multiple providers in multiple countries, and have always had the same symptoms:

  • Mobile data works extremely sporadically (less than once a month, depending on the location)
  • SMS works very sporadically (once per day, location-dependent)
  • Calling always works, though “About phone” is unable to display my number (shows “+XX00000000”)
  • SIM settings are “Use SIM” and “Use Mobile Data”
  • In internet settings, name of SIM and network availability (e. g. “LTE”) are provided, but tapping on network yields “WiFi won’t connect automatically for now” and the little internet icon next to the battery icon has an exclamation point without showing a connected network; manually connecting to a network does not work, though all available networks are at least shown
  • Tried all SIM slots, resetting internet, blowing on empty SIM slots …

Any ideas? It seems like a strange hardware issue to me and that I maybe need to replace the module the SIM slots are in …

Thanks for your help!

Best wishes

2

Welcome to the community forum.

The SIM slots are in the Core Module, attached to the motherboard … https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/37466378677906-Out-of-warranty-repair-costs-for-Fairphone-3

3

Did you try differnet SIM cards? And VoLTE is enabled?

4

Hi Yvonne,

thanks for reaching out so fast!

Yes, and yes - as I said, I tried 6 different SIMs in 4 countries (blau in Germany, tello in US, free in France, Lyca in Denmark, each for sev. months while living there), all physical nano-SIMs that where shipped by the provider; and VoLTE is also enabled, exactly.

Any other clues?

I may add that the issue seems to have worsened over the years.

5

Oh, cool, good to know! Thanks. I won’t get a new Core just for the SIMs, though :slight_smile:

If anyone has any other things I could try to fix the issue that are less pricy, let me know :>