AT&S, Fairphone Bring Latest Smartphone and Vision for Fairer Electronics to Austria

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Today, social enterprise Fairphone joined the Austrian high-end PCB manufacturer in Vienna for a special preview of the Fairphone 2. Featuring an original modular design that reflects the organization’s ambitions for fairness, this is the first time that the new smartphone has been displayed in Austria.

Modular smartphone with a focus on repair

Developed and engineered from the ground up, the Fairphone 2 uses innovative design to change the way products are made and used. This high-performance smartphone features a 5-inch, full HD LCD display, Android 5.1 (Lollipop) and 32GB of internal storage. What sets it apart is the game-changing modular architecture that enables DIY repair of select components, resulting in a longer lasting device.

With the Fairphone 2, the organization has remained committed to projects started with their first device, including sourcing conflict-free tin and tantalum from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, improving working conditions for factory staff in China and reducing e-waste with the collection of scrap phones in Ghana. It is also pursuing new interventions, including setting up a Fairtrade gold supply chain and sourcing conflict-free tungsten from a mine in Rwanda.

Designed to improve the supply chain

The Fairphone 2’s original design allows the organization to build stronger relationships with suppliers, as well as influence production processes and select more responsibly sourced components and materials.

One of these new suppliers is the Austrian company AT&S. ‘AT&S has an excellent reputation as high-end PCB manufacturer and the company is also one of the most advanced players with social and environmental programmes in the field of PCBs. That’s the reason why we wanted to have them as a partner’, confirms Fairphone CEO Bas van Abel.

Besides sharing similar values and AT&S high-end positioning in terms of quality and manufacturing capabilities, Fairphone was keen to work with AT&S to explore ways to integrate more responsible gold into the Fairphone 2 supply chain. Together, Fairphone and AT&S have been tracing the route the gold travels from the mines all the way to the phone, and are working to establish channels for sourcing Fairtrade gold for use in the PCBs for the new Fairphone. With this incentive the two companies will make an example says AT&S CEO Andreas Gerstenmayer: ‘We are on the verge of using Fairtrade gold for the first time in the electronics industry. Together with Fairphone we are thus taking an important step towards a world of fairer electronics.’ This is totally in line with Fairphone’s overall vision, as they are building a movement for fairer electronics to create positive impact across the value chain.

The Fairphone 2 is available for pre-order

The Fairphone 2 is currently available in Fairphone’s online shop, as well as through selected retail partners. To learn more about the Fairphone 2, please refer to the technical specifications or view to cost breakdown for insight into the organization’s business model and what each Fairphone 2 purchase supports.

About Fairphone

Fairphone is a social enterprise that is building a movement for fairer electronics. By making a phone, we’re opening up the supply chain and creating new relationships between people and their products. We’re making a positive impact across the value chain in mining, design, manufacturing and life cycle, while expanding the market for products that put ethical values first. Together with our community, we’re changing the way products are made.

About AT&S

AT&S is the European market leader and one of the globally leading manufacturers of high-value printed circuit boards. AT&S industrialises leading-edge technologies for its core business segments Mobile Devices, Automotive, Industrial, Medical and Advanced Packaging. Starting in 2016, AT&S will position itself in the high-end market at the new site in Chongqing (China) with two new leading-edge technologies: IC substrates and substrate-like printed circuit boards. As an international growth enterprise, AT&S has a global presence, with production facilities in Austria (Leoben and Fehring) and plants in India (Nanjangud), China (Shanghai, Chongqing under construction) and Korea (Ansan, near Seoul). The company currently employs about 8,600 people.