Earlier Fairphones weren't radio-compatible with Public Mobile (Telus) networks. They were primarily intended for European market.
Specs for the latest Fairphone 3+ are somewhat radio-compatible with Public Mobile (Telus). All the basics should work but many of the LTE bands aren't supported. I suppose they'll still get Public Mobile's 3Mbps "3G Speed" but signal might be weak in some areas.
Fairphone is certainly more environmentally friendly than mainstream brands - most people don't want to think about how their shiny Apples and Samsungs are being built in industrialized sweatshops with horrible working conditions and slave wages.
You do need to DIY when it comes time to upgrade those modules. It's a great idea but it's just not for everyone.
And certain core components (like the mainboard and everything soldered onto it) just can't be upgraded, they're already heavily populated and just can't support much more, so while there are modular options the upgrade path still remains surprisingly limited. At some point a few years down the road you will have to buy a new device, as always.
But the deal breaker for me is just what you get vs what you pay. Fairphones are fairly costly while their tech is fairly gutless and dated. And they're always big clunky things. At any given point in time you can always buy smaller, sleeker, faster, better devices at the same or lower price. The added cost of being a "responsible" consumer is appealing to a limit, but (to me) the Fairphones always exceed that limit too far and in too many ways.
