Will the Fairphone 2 work in Australia

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Hey all,

I’ve done some legwork! I’m not an expert by any means, so take this all with a grain of salt. I’d love if someone could double-check what I’ve written and provide clarification, I’m particularly unsure of the practical differences of FDD and TDD for 4G technologies.

Anway! I’m from Australia trying to get the phone as well. I’m not an expert in cellphone networks, but here’s my understanding:

Here are the bands that Fairphone 2 works on, as linked above earlier in the thread:

  • GSM/GPRS/EDGE (2G): Quad-band: 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz

  • WCDMA (3G): Bands 1 (2100 MHz), 2 (1900 MHz), 8 (900 MHz)

  • LTE Advanced (4G): Bands 3 (1800 MHz), 7 (2600 MHz), 20 (800 MHz)

We can compare this with the network frequencies for Australia, obtained from the GSM World Coverage Map:

  • 2G: 900, 1800

  • 3G: Telstra offers 850/2100, Optus offers 900/2100, Vodafone offers 850/900/2100. Vodafone are phasing out 850 as indicated here.

  • 4G: Telstra offers 700/900/1800/2100, with 2600 in “some areas” - they will likely use it more in 2016, according to wikipedia.
    Optus offers 700/1800/2600, as well as 2300 Mhz in Canberra, and 2100 Mhz in Darwin, Cairns, Sunshine Coast, and Hobart.
    Vodafone offers 850/1800 Mhz

Ok, here are the answers anyone coming to this thread is probably looking for. 2G should work fine with everyone [Edit by @Stefan, Source], for 3G and 4G I’ll break it up by provider.

Telstra:

  • 3G: 2100 Mhz is supported. However, reading this comment carefully implies that the 2100 Mhz is only used for the downlink, meaning 3G probably won’t actually be supported.

  • 4G: 1800 Mhz is support, and 2600 Mhz may be used more in 2016. I would be inclined to say that there is no “uplink” and it won’t be supported… however, this post on an Australian Networking forum (ctrl+f to “4G Band Plans”) implies that there is both a “Tx” (transmission) and “Rx” (receiving) frequency in the 1800 Mhz bandwidth. So it might actually work for 4G! I’d love for someone to provide more insight either way :slight_smile:

Optus:

  • 3G: 900/2100 Mhz are both supported. So I think Optus 3G should work.

  • 4G: 1800 and 2600 Mhz are both supported. However, I am unsure if one is uplink and the other is downlink, or if an uplink/downlink is workable on both.Whirlpool forums seems to think so, but I can’t confirm. Either way, my guess is that 4G will work, but I’m not certain. I’d love it if someone could help me here!

Vodafone:

  • 3G: 900/2100 Mhz are both support. So I think Vodafone 3G should work.

  • 4G: 1800 Mhz is supported. However, I am unsure if it there is both an uplink and a downlink on this frequency. Again, Whirlpool forums seems to think so, but I can’t confirm. My guess is that it will work.

My Verdict:

Telstra: 3G probably isn’t supported, 4G might be.
Optus: 3G is probably supported, 4G probably is as well.
Vodafone: 3G is probably supported, 4G probably is as well.

I’m with Vodafone at the moment, so I’ll put in my Sim and if it doesn’t work, I’ll try with Optus.

Again, I’m not an expert, and I’d love if someone could provide more details, particularly in regards to 4G.

Thanks for reading!

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