Best deGoogled and most sustainable Murena Fairphone 4 is now available in the USA

Not.

According to the FAQ on the Murena Fairphone4 product page.

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Congratulations Murena, for being the first to bring Fairphone to the USA! I had previously ordered a refurb Pixel from Murena but I just put in a cancel request and will order the Fairphone instead since I was lusting after it since it was introduced in Europe.

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Most unlocked bring-your-own phones on the market are generally for both T-Mobile and AT&T. I have done BYO taking eBay phones into AT&T stores for many years now. Is there any reason FP4 specifically says only T-Mobile?

The announcement says they recommend it, I guess because T-Mobile due to their origin are the provider most closely resembling mobile network providers in Europe compatibility-wise, for which the phone was originally designed.

You might want to have a read here or ask for Fairphone 4 AT&T experiences … https://forum.fairphone.com/t/fairphone-owners-in-the-usa-fp2-fp3-fp4/5083/279

It could be that the OEM (Fairphone) has not had the phone certified with AT&T for AT&T’s “brand” of VoLTE/HD Calling, or hasn’t done so yet.

Since all the U.S. carriers retired 3G in favor of 4G/VoLTE calling (and since AT&T no longer has a 2G network, either), VoLTE-capable (and -certified per carrier) devices are now required for activation and continued use, or so I’ve read. AT&T maintains an “authorized devices list” (viewable on their website) that contains relatively few certified devices… and the Fairphone4 is not currently on it.

{Edit: I’m far from being an expert on this, though, so maybe a developer can confirm or comment.}

I agree that in the past, as long as bands on the device matched up fairly well with the bands that AT&T (or T-mobile, for that matter) used, then it was easy to BYOP. I think those days are gone.

T-mobile USA has always been very accepting of most devices made around the world, and it might be related to what @AnotherElk suggested above.

MVNOs also have to adhere to the conditions set by the underlying major carrier whose infrastructure they operate on.

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Murena Fairphone 4 has had VoLTE and VoWifi support in the USA since the end of last year.

See my post from December 20, 2022: Fairphone 4 supports 4G calling (VoLTE) in USA with /e/OS 1.6

No. Verizon is a very controlling company and will likely never allow a deGoogled phone (or Linux phone, like Librem 5 or PinePhone) on their phone network. They declined the offer by Apple to be the first carrier to support the original iPhone because Apple would not agree to pre-install Verizon apps (malware) on the iPhone. The only reason Verizon later supported the iPhone is because it was a massive success when it launched with AT&T.

Another thing to note is that the Fairphone 4 lacks support for half of the main cellular bands used by Verizon 4G LTE (B13 and B66). So it would not have a good connection to the Verizon network anyway.

It is true that the device needs to be on the AT&T authorized devices list to be able to activate a new SIM on their network, but it might be possible to use a SIM that has already been activated with an approved device. It might also be necessary to contact AT&T to have them manually approve your Fairphone 4.

As mentioned above, T-Mobile is more welcoming to new devices using their network compared to AT&T and Verizon.

Also, the Fairphone 4 supports all of the main cellular bands used by T-Mobile 4G LTE in the USA (B2, B4, B12, and B71) and supports T-Mobile Mid-band and Low-band 5G (n41 and n71). In contrast, the Fairphone 4 lacks support for one of the main cellular bands used by AT&T 4G LTE (B17) and lacks support for half of the main cellular bands used by Verizon 4G LTE (B13 and B66). Though it does support Mid-band and Low-band 5G for AT&T and Verizon (n77 and n5), T-Mobile is widely seen as the industry leader in 5G roll-out in the United States.

From Murena Fairphone 4 page:

4G supported bands | B1 / B2 / B3 / B4 / B5 / B7 / B8 / B12 / B18 / B19 / B20 / B28 / B32 / B38 / B40 / B41 / B71

5G supported bands | n1 / n3 / n5 / n7 / n8 / n20 / n28 / n38 / n41 / n71 / n77 / n78

*Main bands for USA carriers are marked in bold.

From PhoneArena page explaining 4G LTE bands:

АТ&T | B2, B4, B5, B12, B14, B17, B29, B30, B66
Verizon Wireless | B2, B4, B5, B13, B46, B48, B66
T-Mobile | B2, B4, B5, B12, B66, B71
Sprint | B25, B26, B41

*Main band for each carrier is marked in bold.

*Edited to match syle used above.

From PhoneArena page explaining 5G bands:

mmWave spectrum 5G bands:
n260 band (based on 37GHz to 40GHz frequencies) — used by Verizon Wireless, AT&T, T-Mobile
n261 (27.5GHz to 28.35GHz) — used by Verizon Wireless, AT&T, T-Mobile

Mid-band 5G spectrum:
n77 (3700MHz) — mid-band used by AT&T and Verizon
n41 (2500MHz) — used by new T-Mobile (formerly used by Sprint)

Low-band 5G spectrum:
n71 (600MHz) — used extensively by T-Mobile
n5 (850MHz) — used by AT&T and Verizon
n2 (1900MHz) — used by Verizon

I’ll end this comment by saying that I am very happy this phone is finally available for sale in the USA market! To my knowledge, this is the first and only deGoogled phone that can be purchased in the USA directly from an OEM or OEM partner. This is huge! Americans without the skills, patience, or desire to deGoogle a phone themselves (most Americans) can now buy an Android phone that is free from Google malware!

Thank you to the e Foundation for making this happen!

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I’ve read comments in some forums that AT&T has sometimes blocked calls for customers who have done that, and says via an automated message that they need to switch to an approved device. Maybe it will work, though.

I’ve heard this might work, too.

But…

…there’s that.

Oh wow, that’s basically as bad as Verizon. I’ve read a comment in the Purism forums that Verizon had converted the commenter’s cell phone plan to a data-only plan when they tried to use their already-activated Verizon SIM in a Librem 5. At least we still have T-Mobile as an option.

The TerraCube is designed in the US and works world wide with either Android or e/OS we have had one with e/OS for almost a year. My FP3 with stock Android or e/OS has better reception in Canada than my Blackberry did.

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One of those is a smartphone …

(A) https://twitter.com/TerraCubesNaija

(B) http://www.terracube.com/

(C) https://myteracube.com/

(Yes, today is my “I’m making friends today” day :innocent: .)

Door “C”. Door B would be hard to fit in your pocket. :slight_smile:

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It would be interesting to know whether the Murena Fairphone 4 and spare parts and accessories for it ship from Europe or from a warehouse in the USA – and I’m curious about the same when it comes to repairs and returns.

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Don’t forget that Google is not everywhere in the world

I wouldn’t 100% write off the FP4 on Verizon. A few of us are testing it now. I don’t work for Murena, so can’t say if our test phones differ from those that are now shipping but this FP4 works on Verizon. I had to use an already set up sim from another phone but it works. The one caveat is I’m stuck on 4G, not sure if anyone else has gotten 5G to work.

As a side note, Verizon is an evil corporation but I was lucky enough to get the right sales nerds, they were as excited as me to try to get a new phone working :smile:

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Hi. I’m wondering if someone can help me. I just purchased the phone and it’s build quality is great! However, it’s just not functional for me. It won’t work with android auto along with other things such as gpay. I’ve filled out the order support form a few times requesting to return it, but haven’t received any kind of email confirmation or response.

thanks for any help you can provide!

You purchased a deGoogled phone where those items do not work as they require Google services and whatnot.
Neither the device nor /e/ is at fault. Welcome to the land of NoGApps.

To be frank some prior research of what you were “getting into” before making such a pricey investment was warranted. From what I gather you have been here awhile so the non-working Android Auto and Google Pay should come as no surprise.

Search results for ‘android auto’ - /e/OS community

Search results for ‘google pay’ - /e/OS community

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@Manoj: Can you perhaps help with this?

Since Murena is piloting the distribution of this phone in the US, the degoogled nature and connected limitations of the preinstalled /e/OS come as no big surprise.

But there’s still the option to install the Google certified Fairphone OS to get such things to work … https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/4405858261777 … with the catch being that support in the US runs through Murena exclusively, not Fairphone, and that in case of need for vendor support /e/OS would have to be reinstalled to get support from Murena.

(Since I didn’t buy my phone from Murena, having installed /e/OS on the phone myself instead, for me in Europe it’s the exact opposite. If I wanted to have vendor support, I would have to reinstall Fairphone OS to get support from Fairphone, so just know that this kind of support detour would not exclusively apply to current US Fairphone 4 customers.)

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Hi @warcmath pl send the mail to helpdesk@e.email in case not already sent. The team should be able to help with your refund.

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Will do. Thank you for your help.

the product pages adjunct to a buy button should cover any research necessary for the naive buyer.

I read through the places specifically for the purpose of compatibility and think it’s not enough.

details

sections concerning App compat at https://murena.com/smartphones/

  • A Google Services compatibility layer is implemented

    Compatible with all apps (headline)

    … most Android apps can be installed …

and the buy-flow at https://murena.com/shop/smartphones/brand-new/murena-fairphone-4-eu/

And because /e/OS runs on Android, you can still run most of your favourite Android apps.

Which Android apps are compatible with /e/OS?

Most Android apps can be installed on /e/OS.

For now, we don’t support in-app purchases.

As Google Mobile Services are not preinstalled on our phones, some apps that depend heavily on those services might not run properly. We update our system regularly to support more apps and ensure they run smoothly.

Murena should name very popular “Google Android” components that have no surrogate and are known not to work. This manages expectations and avoids warranty returns, filed bug tickets and forum threads.

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