[SOLVED] Fairphone 4 bad signal. Especially Upload speeds & regular calls

I use the FP4 for 1 month and I can say the quality of the 4G/5G signal is bad.
Especially the Upload is very often at my home at 2MB where with a pixel 4a or old phone it was consistntely at 10MB . I also often get things I didn t see while in cities for a while like the Edge signal.

  1. For example at lunch there was 6 persons at the Montpellier coworking in a place where signal was clearely not optimal…BUT the 5 persons could go on internet with Iphones and android phones much older than mine.
    WIth fairphone I had NO internet network at all. After trying 5 times to check google I gave up.

  2. With my pixel 4a using SIGNAL video conferencing I never had an issue when I am in the center of my appartement.
    With Fairphone 4 everyone tells me they don t hear me when I am not close to a window !
    This is very consistent with the bad upload…when I have video on, no one hear me !

  3. 4G / 5G doesn t make any difference on free mobile…maybe because of my provider.

Speed test with optimal signal close to a window on a sunny day. I would get 8-10MB all the time with pixela 4a and Samsung A3 2017 :


( concerning download its not has bad since - it is not a limiting factor - I get 20-40MB depending. With pixel 4a 2XMIMO I was at 40-60MB and A3 2017 20-30MB )

Here is a test of my 4G/5G connection. Provider: vodafone
Choosed the same speedtest server like you…
I’m happy…
So I can’t imagine that the hardware is throttling you

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Have you compared the SAR values of the phones, this would most likely have influence along with the Network Provider.

The SAR of the Pixel 4a is def much higher ,however the Samsung A3 seem to be similar to the FP4.

Wondering if call quality is at least partially due to software bugs

I even noticed that regular cellular phone call people don t hear me when I am in the middle of my small apartement. Don t remember , even with the very first GSM phones beeing in such low quality regular calls.
Another speed test in the middle of the street with full 4G reception on a sunny day this afternoon. I just get 5MB UPLOAD. Never seen this on 4G (with pixel 4a would be 60MB down and min 10MB UP in those kind of scenarios) :

I think I will have to contact the support for repaire of my new phone :frowning:

You right, but what shall we do

Open a ticket and create a RMA

But @AlphaElwedritsch , you don t seem to have connection problems ? Do you ? 126MB Down and 44 Mb UP is great to me!
Do you have regular call problems too ?
This morning in Marseille on free mobile : Speedtest d’Ookla – le test de vitesse de connexion global

yvmuell :
SAR /DAS : is not different from samsungs. Anyhow a phone that can t handle regular phone call like in 1998 is a problem to me :slight_smile: Thks for the link to noise cancelation, but I don t believe It is my main problem, since I am always in quite places with loud speaker. Everything points in the direction of signal quality, both 4G and regular GSM signal quality.

No, never

No, never

But remember, I’m not on FPOS, I’m using iodéOS

For me, it was or is important to say, that not the HW (modem) of FP4 can be the problem in general…
I don’t think it will get any better for you either, only if you do dozens of speed tests.
I’m assuming you can’t avoid an RMA
Or you still have the opportunity to test it with another SIM card (from a friend).

Oura ! thanks a lot @AlphaElwedritsch , it is very helfull !
This means that there is hope for me to have Fairephone 4 to work like yours! I didn t noticed that you had another OS.
Also for now I d rather have FP resolve their software issue quickely… let see if next software update solves it. If not I ll send this phone back. Because I spent weeks uplading account and soft on this little guy…its a pain to send ti back .

Finally I openned a ticket at fairphone.
I have tried also all the combination this morning of 4G / 5G + IPV6 this morning. rebboting my phone each time. They all give a very upload


5G IPV6 seems a little better…let keep it like this and see if it is usable…
image

This is 5G (T-Mobile CZ) at my location, approx. 20 km from Prague:

I’m running stock Fairphone OS with the latest update. So yeah, your speed should definitely be higher.

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Thks Razem,
It is very interesting since you have the same phone and software as me.
I really have a buggy phone Or a phone that doesn t work on Free Mobile France (3rd network provider here). I am going in Madrid spain next week…will see if its terrible aswell on roaming with another network…

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Now I am in Spain on vodafone, I get ridiculous signal upload and download aswell .
As in France on Free Mobile sometime I have no internet data in the middle of the city or in a restaurant where eveyrone else is on his phone chatting. :

On WIFI it is able to connect at full speed :

Free is the 4th and the one with the lowest quality of service.

You should test with Orange FR.

Never had a problem with Free in 15 years. Was managing 60mB Down and 15 MB up constantely with Pixel 4a on Free Mobile at home ( 30Mb with Samsung a3 2017)…as explained in this thread.
If you read the last comment it is not working on vodafone Spain 4 G in center madrid …so it doesn t seem to be a network problem at all.

Free mobile wasn’t even launched 15 years ago :nerd_face:

And the speeds in roaming also depends on the agreements between FM and Voda.

I get the same QOS on my Fairphone 4 / Galaxy note 9 / Galaxy A42 5G / Asus Zenfone 8 on Bouygues SFR and Orange F.

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Vodafone Spain in roaming 4G , gives me aswell 6Mb /s UPLOAD

at the end, if you want this sorted out I think you need to #contactsupport

no this is a community user forum, no official support.

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This is a user forum, you are talking to fellow Fairphone users. Fairphone employees rarely drop in here.

If you want to reach support please #contactsupport as @yvmuell suggested.

Edit: Too slow, yet again :see_no_evil:

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Sorry in parallel I am trying to reach the support since the 19th of Mai .
I had an answer today, and thought this message arriving in my email was from the support .
Anyway , maybe I ll have a FP4 that works one day …who knows
After 2 weeks I get a generic email like this (previous was sorry for not answering!) :
2nd June:


23rd may