[plug] Phone recommendations

[William Kenworthy]

Sorry, thats an old link - use https://commerce.jolla.com/

BillK


On 17/9/26 17:25, William Kenworthy via plug wrote:
> Check out the Jolla Phone (https://jolla-devices.com/jolla-jolla/) - 
> looks capable.  I was looking at a month ago thinking this could be my 
> next one. Currently not available in Australia so you have to order it 
> from overseas - there were some posts on their forum from Aussies at 
> least one of whom had bought one.  You would have to email them about 
> the 000 mess, but I assume because its modern that's not an issue.
>
> BillK
>
>
> On 17/9/26 15:30, James Henstridge via plug wrote:
>> On Thu, 17 Sept 2026 at 12:08, gavinwc via plug <plug at plug.org.au> 
>> wrote:
>>> I know this is opening a can of worms, but looking for 
>>> recommendations for a replacement phone. Why? Read on:
>>>
>>> I choose NOT to use an android or iPhone smart phone and have had a 
>>> variety of 'feature' phones over the years because all I want to use 
>>> it for is text and calls, with occasional hotspot and definitely 
>>> Bluetooth. My current one is the Nokia 800 Tough. Gee, that's 
>>> radical, I know, and being a high school teacher it always gives the 
>>> teenagers a good laugh!
>>>
>>> Now, today I got a text and email from my carrier that had all the 
>>> hallmarks of a scam because it screamed "your phone is going to be 
>>> blocked!" But, it was legit. Because both major carriers have really 
>>> dropped the ball on emergency calls, from Oct they're now going to 
>>> be completely blocking any phone deemed not capable of meeting the 
>>> new emergency connection regs released in 2024
>>>
>>> You people all probably know that, but thought I'd spell it out for 
>>> the archives and clarity :-)
>>>
>>> Something like the Fairphone would be great, I guess, but last time 
>>> I looked it wasn't affordable for me. The Nokia runs the independent 
>>> (?) kaiOS, so I'm looking for something non-android and non-ios. Any 
>>> handset chosen has to voLTE compatible, which my handset says it is, 
>>> but it's been deemed 'unfit' anyway :-(
>>>
>>> Ideas?
>> I've got no specific suggestions, since feature phones don't really
>> appeal to me. But any phone sold locally today should be fine for the
>> emergency call regulations. And if that turns out not to be the case,
>> you've got the Australian Consumer Law on your side to get a full
>> refund.
>>
>> It might also be worth checking if your current phone's manufacturer
>> has an updated firmware that fixes the defect. Your phone sends it's
>> firmware version when associating with a network, so the block list
>> can target phones with old firmware while allowing phones with fixed
>> firmware to connect. If that's the case for your phone, then you might
>> not need a replacement.
>>
>> And this really is a case of your phone being defective rather than
>> the networks: many of the phones being blocked can do regular calls
>> over VoLTE just fine, but either try to do emergency calls over 3G or
>> won't correctly fail over to other LTE networks if their home network
>> is unreachable. This is the kind of thing you can't individually test
>> without calling 000, which you shouldn't be doing as a test. And if
>> there is a life threatening emergency, you really do want this stuff
>> to work.
>>
>> James.
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>>
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