[plug] Phone recommendations

[Kevin Shackleton]

But they don't ship outside the EU

On Thu, 17 Sept 2026, 17:26 William Kenworthy via plug, <plug at plug.org.au>
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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