Which telecom operator is fair?

As long as the other operator has a roaming partner in your country, it should be no problem, I think.

But does it make a difference, if then you are still using the “unfair” network towers of your home countries operators?

Also, I fear that customer support from an operator in another country would be unsatisfactory.

I am pretty sure it does make a difference, to me it feels comparable to electricity. For my new flat, i choose a renewable power plan. The power i actually use is the same. It is the same electricity grid. But it does not matter because i change what energy gets “inserted” into that grid.

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I am a a member of The Phone Co-op in the UK and have a Pay-as-you-go SIM card as I am in the UK about 3-4 weeks per year with family.

If there are enough of us in Germany interested in setting up our our phone co-op ( Mobil e.G. Gennossenschaft" ) then we should organise one. I am currently with D-Telekom but would be willing to help set up a e.G. However, my written German / German co-operative law is not so good. I tried to set up a co-op in 2010 however we we only 3 people and that wasn’t enough.

We would need to piggy-back onto an established service provider though.

I am based in Hamburg / working in Berlin for next few months. I am a member of Greenpeace energy e.G. as my electricity provider when I charge my fairphone and pay my phone bills bank with GLS Gemeinschaftsbank… So anyone up for shaking up the German phone market (if not already been done / in process of being set-up).

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One option we have in Germany is talking / writing with / to our customer services, Last week I had to ring of Deutsche Telekom, and they always ask at the end is there anyway they can improve their service. I mentioned I would like to see more transparency in their tariffs, but forgot to ask how sustainable are they in sourcing their electrical components. Next time I will / or in fact will organise something tomorrow.

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I’m considering switching to The People’s Operator (TPO) - 10% of the money you pay in your contract goes to a charity of your choice, 1/4 of their total profits goes to charity and their pay-as-you-go tariffs are insanely cheap: something like 1p a megabyte, 3p per text and 5p a minute, which is perfect for people who don’t use their phone that often. And their bundles are cheap too. They piggyback EE’s network so it should be pretty reliable.

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may be interesting | mag interessant sein

Nachhaltigkeit bei Telekommunikationsdienstleistern schließt vor allem
den Gebrauch von erneuerbaren Energien sowie Energieeffizienz ein. Die
Rücknahme sowie das Recycling alter Geräte (z.B. Router) sind, ebenso
wie faire Arbeitsbedingungen bei den Zulieferern, weitere wichtige
Themen

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No fair phone companies in Spain. Horrible market. One try of a coop for a small town ended in bankrupcy. I operante with EUSKALTEL (regional, bask country) subsidiary of ORANGE but they both are as bad as any other here. I would like to have at least one fairphone company for the whole Europe now that roamming fees are going to be supresed.

What about Eticom?

Thank you so much Stephan. I didn’t know they were on operation yet. I am
mobing rigth now.

Please, don’t count me on euskaltel any more. I am going to operate with
ETiCoM.

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A while ago the Belgian ethical operator Ello Mobile changed their plans: http://www.ello-mobile.be/nl/mobiel-bellensurfen/tariefplannen/particulieren.aspx Now there’s not a big price difference anymore compared to other operators.

I have their all-in business package and I am very happy with them. Whenever there was a problem, it was immediatly solved. I would seriously recommend them!

Hello to everyone,

I own a FP2 but I do not use it already because I am not sure if my sim card will fit in. Besides I have an old virgin sim card, do you think I should change it? What is the best “operateur” for fairphone, with ethical and economical advantages from your point of view? I live in France.
Please help me…^^
Have a nice day, Très bonne journée à vous!

 Alice

Hi @Aliki, the format used for SIMs in the FP2 is micro-SIM, see Wikipedia for some images to check which one you have.

If your SIM is larger, then you can either cut it up or ask your operator for a new SIM. Usually operators don’t mind if your SIM is that old. Or you can switch operators of course. I’m not French so can’t comment on the ethics of that.

It is also good to change an old sim card for a new one.
Users of a FP2 have reported problems with an old sim card.

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Hi to everybody,

Thank for your answers! I wanted to avoid to order a new sim card but maybe it would better like this. I have waited too much for using my new phone^^
Best wishes,

Alice

I am also with the phone coop in the UK so far brilliant, customer service has been wonderful. They phone you back when work is done, to check every thing is working ok. Plus they are fully behind the FairPhone ideals which is the main reason I choose them. I had withheld from buying a phone, only ever had second hand ones. But loved the FP idea/ideals. Then I found I could have a new FP, broadband, calls and messengers cheaper than with BT, Once I pay my FP of its even cheaper. Win Win in all ways so far. They try to keep your old modem working if they can. You get money off for sending in old phones to.

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Yeah, Xs4all did a lot for the Internet. Even after they got bought by KPN. However, it appears they’re on their way down getting merged by KPN completely. I guess we can say Internet is finally a commodity and the radical early days are over… :frowning:

I got Vodafone Ziggo because in my previous apartment KPN was able to deliver the wonderful rate of less than 8/1 mbit while Ziggo just gave full cable speed. Coupled with quad play and a bit of luck with the Vodafone Ziggo merger and I got a great deal with them, and as long as you don’t touch anything it works. Even got my own router. I just got the Mediabox Next plus a year of resubscription so I’m sticking with them. If Xs4all survives or is rebooted I’ll probably switch to that provider instead. At my new location, VDSL2 gives good speed from what I can gather. Other option is stick with the current offering. Is Vodafone Ziggo an ethical company? Of course not. I’m sticking with them cause it saves me money and its a toss up going from cable to VDSL2. My mother still has a Xs4all account, and the things they provide with their account are awesome. Fritz modem, flexible firewall on their end for your whole connection, Usenet server, SSH server, native IPv6, free SIM card (MVNO/KPN), free Spotify Premium. And all of that since forever. They were already giving advertisement-free GB mailboxes, filtering spam, and viruses on e-mail before it was cool. And their helpdesk is ace. Of course, you also pay for that with the subscription fee.

That being said, Vodafone has terrible coverage at work (I work in city of Utrecht). KPN and T-Mobile give better coverage and I think even Tele2 are doing better every year. Also, there are just 4 networks. All the other ones are MVNOs. Some of these give terrible customer support… I’ve read horror stories, gives me the shivers.

Since The People’s Operator went bust I’ve switched to Ecotalk. They effectively run their network on 100% renewable energy. I’m very happy with them.

I guess you mean this company offering contracts in the UK:

https://www.ecotalk.co.uk/

Unfortunately no German office.
The German company by the same name offers business solutions only (telephone conferences, service numbers …) :frowning:

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