Using FP6 with cell carrier Optimum Mobile 🇺🇸

Help Fairphone 6
, ,
1

Hello all,

I have the feeling that this may just be a question for my cell carrier, but I thought I would ask the community anyway.

Some background: My cell carrier is Optimum Mobile, but that carrier uses the cell towers of TMobile for connection purposes. I made the mistake of assuming that since FP6 lists support from TMobile, I would be fine. And at least partially, I was right. I received a SIM from Optimum and after setting up /e/ on my phone, I was receiving a cell signal and could make calls. However, there were significant issues sending SMS messages and no success when it came to using the internet through 4G/5G. Additionally, it seems like there’s an online checker where you can enter your IMEI to see if your phone is supported by Optimum Mobile, and of course, my phone does not have official support.

I’ve spoken to reps at Optimum and they tried sending an activation update through to my phone, but when I rebooted to accept the change, I now have no indication that I have cell service. No calling, texting, or internet connection.

Has anyone experienced anything similar to this? I’m hesitant to rely on my cell provider since it feels like the company really doesn’t want me using their services with a phone they don’t officially support.

2

What happens if you disable 5G
in the app Settings,
Network and internet,
SIMs
Choose your SIM
Preferred network type
Set to 4G/3G/2G

3

Hi, Lidwien. Changing that setting does not seem to improve my connection. I rebooted after changing the network type too just in case, but no luck.

4

As you are situated in the USA my knowledge is very limited.
What you could try is, borrow a SIM from another provider and see if that helps.
Have a read in this thread about Fairphone owners in America.

5

Thank you for the resource, I’ll look into what others have said. On the bright side, a technician at Optimum replaced my sim and now I am back to only being able to make calls and unreliable texts. I’ve seen a few discussions about there potentially being some configurations I can do with the APN, but it seems that Optimum support is very reluctant to give out that information. I think the standard for the US is that carriers lock those settings away so they can’t even be viewed by the customer.