I reside in the USA and my carrier is AT&T and I would like to know if there are anyone is the USA who has the same carrier and uses the FairPhone and it’s OS and wondering if there are any conflicts regarding texting, phone calls, pictures, etc?
Presently using an Apple iOS and have been for the past 12 years and looking for a phone and OS which would operate with my carrier AT&T here in the States.
I hope this is the correct forum for this post since it is my first.
Welcome weatherground. There are a few of us intrepid souls!
I also have AT&T (through the MVNO RedPocketMobile) but do not use a FairPhone, but rather the global, unlocked Samsung S9 mobile device. With respect to conflicts, I have found no particular issue regarding texting, phone calls, pictures I can’t live with.
You note that you are currently an iOS user- that is a wonderful digital garden indeed, one of the most “usable out of the box” digital systems ever created, but it is a walled garden that imposes rules and controls over the use of your data- in short it places usability far far above privacy and digital sovereignty.
But let’s manage expectations: the /e/OS is a rapidly evolving and strengthening digital ecosystem that places privacy above almost every other concern, and sometimes that includes usability. In short what I am trying to say here is that don’t delude yourself into thinking the road from iOS to /e/OS will be without a few bumps in the road. As to whether or not some hurdles are insurmountable at this time will be up to you.
If you are prepared to do some research here you will learn how to break the chains of your digital bondage. The Free and Open Source world is also rapidly evolving and its model of cooperation, sharing and voluntary association is challenging the Tech hierarchy by threatening their business models on an existential level.
Withdrawing your consent to be a product which is monetized by BiG Tech is the first step. For me, in practice that meant to take steps which made my Big Tech “footprint” far smaller than it once was: I currently run parallel systems: I keep a /Google/ device for things that must work on Android (paid software through the App Store, etc.) and an /e/ device for almost everything else. This strategy may work for you.
In this way, you can see for yourself what will work, what won’t, what’s mission critical to you and what isn’t without jeopardizing access to the products and services you need. As I mentioned above, I use RedPocketMobile on the GSMA system (AT&T) with a $10/mo 1GB LTE data plan for testing and evaluation. As more things move to the /e/co-system, I will have be looking to change plans to 3-8GB /mo, gradually reducing my BiG Tech footprint to ZERO.
Hope this rambling take helped a bit. Best regards,
Thanks Marc for a through response to my question. I agree fully with your response. My desire to wean away from Apple has been growing for a year. Tech companies like Apple and Google gave us a “fantastic” product but little did we know at the time the deceit of selling our data was the goal. Now I want “out”.
I have no education in computer science and cannot write a script using sudo or / which will be necessary to enable some things to work on my /e/ device. Perhaps the e community can help in this regard.
Hopefully to begin this process is to purchase a phone compatible with the e OS, install the OS, switch the Apple sim card into the e phone and boot. Then I can slowly work on different applications a little at a time to achieve what I would like the phone to do. While working on this I can switch the sim card back into my Apple device when necessary.
Anything more you can contribute or share with me Marc would be helpful and thanks again for the reply.
Take care.
I’m another American user. I semi-blindly jumped into /e/ without doing a bit more reading & research than I should have. I would recommend looking into a device first, and do so very thoroughly. Some have more issues than others, and certain ones are not compatible with /e/, such as US market Samsung phones.
Installing /e/ may or may not be a hurdle depending on the phone and your familiarity with installing custom OSes. There is a possibility that you’ll need to do some fiddling to make things work on whichever carrier you go with too. And don’t expect a flawless bug-free experience!
There are a couple of other things that I had to deal with that I won’t go into here, but the whole process for me to get my phone (Samsung S9) usable as a daily driver was round about and took a while. I griped a bit too much about it here I’ll admit
These forums are a pretty good source of info, but it’s scattered and sometimes contradictory. The people here are very helpful which is a huge plus. At the end if the day I am relieved and happy that /e/ and it’s creators are making this OS and really do appreciate the work they continue to do despite my criticisms.
If you have specific questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.
Indeed this is true but the target is constantly moving and evolving which makes it difficult to “keep up”. and the sometimes apparent schizophrenic / contradictory nature relates to the “there are also many roads to Dublin” aspect of this process, where some are comfortable and knowledgeable with ROM replacement so their conversations and instructions are at a high level and there are those that before a week ago weren’t exposed to the idea of replacement system ROMs, replacement recovery ROMs, ODIN, Heimdall, ADB, unlocked boot-loaders, etc.
It’s been more than “a week” for me and I’m still trying to wrap my head around these “new” systems.
@weatherground these two links may help if you haven’t seen them: Spoiler alert: I started one and @cornfarmer started the other- they are relatively recent but not completely up to date (anymore). They give a flavor of the issues relating to breaking the chains of the Data Monopolists.
One last thing:
The person who helped me the most and frankly made it possible for me to complete my journey to /e/ was @SuzieQ. When I got stuck, she came along and nudged me in the right direction.
I run e in Canada with no problems. I do not use my phone for all digital things. I have installed and have e running on a Nexus 5 and a Moto G4. I am patiently waiting for the release for a Moto G7 Power.
For doing most things the phones are fine, great pictures/video, messaging and browsing. I recommend you use Signal as your messaging app. The maps system works fine (magic earth), task email it’s got all I need. If I want to do some heavy lifting that is what a PC or laptop is for.
Also here in the U.S. but not using Fairphone nor AT&T.
As mentioned one has to carefully check carrier compatibility before a acquiring a phone for /e/.
The Fairphones, AFAIR, are not compatible.
See which of the /e/ supported devices you may be interested in and check the bands it uses. Then compare with the bands used by your carrier. You don’t want to buy a device that winds up useless.
Sites like WillMyPhoneWork or some other frequency checker can be helpful.
Thanks for your reply. You certainly made things simple for me but I do have a question. What is a “sub-model” and why must I add that if my selection for a brand and model has been made.
Without the sub-model selected and when “submit” has been pressed it does not send the info.
Hi all,
Correct me if i am wrong, the tittle could provoke misunderstanding
i dont think your encounter such hardware, carrier, or shipping difficulties because you live in America, but in the United States of America…
Kindly.
piero.
I’m not @marcdw, but for me some things worked, some things didn’t. Some just needed the proper configuration (like the APN), or an hidden/esoteric option checked somewhere…some others needed more thorough troubleshooting. Depending on what the other USA users are using as far as phones/carriers, I would be surprised if they didn’t have a few bumps in the road.
Read below if you want more specifics:
I use an MVNO called Ting and they utilize both Verizon and T-Mobile networks. Verizon’s didn’t work at all for calls/texts. T-Mobile GSM does and has been fine. I had an issue with not being able to send/receive photos via text, or send/receive a group text. It took a few chats with Ting support to figure out the cause (they were very helpful) which went away after resetting the mobile network settings (apparently they can get finicky).
Other than that, the issues have been minor, and mostly related to /e/ itself IME - for instance, the syncing of contacts, notes and calendar seems instantaneous – but photos can take days to sync or won’t sync at all without some fiddling. There is also a bug where the stock calendar app sync notification annoyingly fires off every couple of minutes, but it can be easily disabled with an ADB command, and for now I use an alternative calendar app (obviously no sync there unfortunately).
I mentioned before that reading through the posts here from the other users is highly recommended - I could have benefited from doing that myself, instead of coming on here and crying about XYZ not working, or bitching about how ABC is broken, sucks, boo hoo, etc. You just have to dig a little bit.
tl;dr – I can use /e/ as a daily driver and have been for weeks now. Calls and texts are both fine for me, the only thing I wish was better was photo syncing (see above). But remember, /e/ is still in development, and might not work 100% to your liking out of the box – despite the mixed bag, it was worth it at least for the peace of mind that there is no longer any data mining/spying going on from my phone.
Sorry for late response. Everything did work for me pretty much out-of-the-box from the beginning. I didn’t include info before.
Carrier is T-Mobile. Started with /e/OS 0.1 Nougat on a ZTE Axon 7. Still there with 0.14, multibooting with other N ROMs. Other device is Essential PH-1 with 0.11 Pie. For the most part everything has been fine with the /e/cosystem. In fact, for quite some time all other ROMs (over half a dozen multibooted on other devices) synced contacts and calendar through that system before I moved to EteSync. The other stuff like SMS and whatnot is no different than on any other ROM. Working.
Those two devices are pretty much U.S.based (Axon is A2017U) so no issues with cell data or APN tweaking (only changing all ROMs to use IPv4 only).
@cornfarmer covered some good points and definitely shows that YMMV (your mileage may vary). For instance I’ve never seen nor experienced the “calendar app sync notification” issue on Nougat and Pie.
Depending on carrier and device, things can go smoothly or require a little tweaking here and there to get optimum results.
I first mentioned the Moto G7 as a candidate for /e/ as it was sold in the U.S. and was supported by LineageOS. It eventually became an /e/ supported device. Might be something to look at. Otherwise some homework is required for the Euro- and Asian(?)-based device variants supported by /e/ and whether they will work with U.S. carriers.
Thanks for your reply. I do not have T Mobile but AT&T and what may have worked with you on T may not work with me on AT&T. Many of the earlier and less expensive phones people list and installed eOS are not available here in the USA leaving me to purchase a much more expensive phone.
I wish the e Community or the e Powers would provide a basic guide explaining everything from start to finish instead of your experience of sifting, digging, searching with various forums for this information. We in the USA are receptive to freeing ourselves of the bondage and exploitation by Apple and Google and to think our own countrymen would enslave in a country that was built on individual freedoms is abhorrent. Our Federal Government and the political elites are in agreement with these two companies giving them the means to monitor and control 350 million by what they see, hear, read of it’s citizens and stay in power but not so in the populist movement.
So we do need some type of manual which explains the why and why not’s of phones and carriers for one to decide if it can work instead of dropping a couple of thousand dollars on phones incompatible with their specific carriers. Granted the foundation is in early stages and the engineers are to be congratulated for such an endeavor so my suggestions are meant to further the develop and understanding for person’s in the USA since eOS is a European operation.
I agree. I had been trying to find a way out of google etc. for years but nothing was compelling enough to take the plunge.
The catalyst for me was that Essential went out of business, so I was left with a still perfectly good phone but no more updates from them. I was not prepared for the level of difficulty making it work, and I was certainly not expecting the amount of fiddling/tweaking needed. I wrongly assumed a lot of things, and stumbled in the dark for a while, but there is a way out, as you can see. Not just with /e/ but with other OSes too.
You’re here posting, so it seems you’re serious enough to make the switch. It might take a bit of effort, or it might be easy (depending on if the easy installer works for you). If I had to do it all over again, I’d make some smarter choices (like not bothering w/ another phone), but I’d still end up with /e/. It was a little frustrating at times for me but I stuck to it and made it work.
Couple questions Cornfarmer.
I like the e Foundation and more than likely will stay and adapt here. But what other OSes are there you mentioned besides Touch, Lineage, Sailfish?
Clarify what you meant by “not bothering w/ another phone”.
The only other ones that come to mind are Calyx and Graphene. I’ve only tried out Lineage which I liked just fine, but I was attracted to the /e/ ecosystem to replace the G apps I usually relied on. For me /e/ (bugs notwithstanding) is a better solution than using several disconneted platforms for cloud storage, photos, calendar, docs etc.
Regarding my phone issue - I had issues using /e/ on an Essential PH-1, which was mostly caused by my lack of knowledge/follow-through to solve my problems (I think the troubleshooting part of my brain melted a bit since the lockdowns). I wrongly thought that the phone itself was problematic/incompatible, when it was just a couple of configuration tweaks that needed to be done.
I could totally get the Essential up and running now, knowing what I know, but I ended up with a Galaxy S9 which is a little newer, though if it’s truly a better phone is up for discussion.
I’d be happy to help you along if you’re ready to start the process…
Appreciate the offer to help. Still I have not really serious looked at a phone which would be compatible with my carrier. These questions I am asking are to ensure I am capable of the troubleshooting and the how and where aspects. How did you come to the knowledge the issue was configuration tweaks and did you find the support from someone on these forums?
For know I must find the bands of my carrier and see which phones have those bands is that correct? Is there anything else I need to check on? Since there will be a different OS on the phone, eOS, does it matter if the phone I purchase is Locked or Unlocked? What would it matter? Lastly could I transfer my sim card from my Apple 6sPlus directly to this phone I purchase for eOS?
I would look at what devices are compatible first here - you might not care about having the latest/greatest seeing how you are using an iPhone 6. But what phone you decide to use might affect how installation goes.
Samsung for example - their USA market phones won’t work due to using different processors here, but the global verions will run /e/ OS and should be fine on GSM carriers in the USA - like T-Mobile and I think AT&T which somebody else in this thread uses. IIRC the Galaxy S9 was one of the newer phones in the compatibility list, you can find these global versions on eBay.
If one catches your eye, do a search for it on these forums and read if anyone has had problems getting /e/ installed/working, etc. You can also look on GSM Arena to find frequency specs for lots of phones, if not every phone out there. https://willmyphonework.net/ might be of use as well.
