The 3G service was shutdown. The telcos needed to ensure devices can call VoLTE incase of emergency.
FP5 does this. But it’s not officially sold here. So they see a modem there unsure of and now cant confirm if it will reliably call emergency. Easier for them to block it than see it works.
From what I understand the major telco had some priority VoLTE stuff that made orbit not work. The second major telco seemed to support it as they use more open standards. There’s one left and well have to see how that goes.
It also means telcos can now choose when to drop support for given phone models. Literally force users to upgrade handsets by turning them into WiFi only bricks.
Faiphone is being frog marched out of Australia. Each telco is shutting it down and blocking IMEIs. Sucks for the people that imported them.
Cant even use it as data only. So unless you use it as puerly on WiFi it’s going to landfill. 🙃.
Also. Lawnchair nightly/beta.
What the hell is going on there? Why??
As an American, I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess: corporate influence.
The 3G service was shutdown. The telcos needed to ensure devices can call VoLTE incase of emergency.
FP5 does this. But it’s not officially sold here. So they see a modem there unsure of and now cant confirm if it will reliably call emergency. Easier for them to block it than see it works.
From what I understand the major telco had some priority VoLTE stuff that made orbit not work. The second major telco seemed to support it as they use more open standards. There’s one left and well have to see how that goes.
It also means telcos can now choose when to drop support for given phone models. Literally force users to upgrade handsets by turning them into WiFi only bricks.
…why?
https://medium.com/@jamesdwho/australias-3g-shutdown-why-your-4g-5g-phone-is-now-blocked-5900cd5361e2
My Fairphone is working just fine, but if yours doesn’t have 4G VOIP, then it won’t work in Australia.