Opting out of ATT seems like the most obvious no-brainer, but are there options for phone service that are actually halfway decent?
Or as an alternative, would it be feasible to get some kind of internet phone/texting service, use that over wifi, or maybe have a basic data plan to go with it at most?
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It’s kind of a moot point if you’re in the USA. There are only 3 companies that actually own and operate cell towers: ATT, Verizon, T-Mobile. I’m speaking in terms of privacy, not coverage or quality.
Any other company just leases usage of the towers from one of them.
- PureTalk = ATT
- Mint = T-Mobile
- Cricket = ATT
Then you have T-Mobile that gobbled up a bunch of smaller companies and kept the names to trick you into thinking it’s a different company (kinda like Nestle and their local bottled water companies). T-Mobile also owns Sprint and MetroPCS.
Tracfone = Verizon
that won’t work without telling us your region. the largest part of the world doesn’t even know what is AT&T, let alone ATT
Generally speaking, if someone asks/talks about some local topic without bothering to specify where they live, you can just assume they live in the US :)
true, but I thought it would be important to know the state too
I have my phone on airplane most of the time and use Wi-Fi with VoIP for calls and SMS. If I need mobile data, I have a Silent Link eSIM for mobile data only. If you ever need to make an emergency call you don’t need a sim card or provider, emergency calls always work. While the main motivation is privacy, it’s nice that it olny costs about $3 per month on average.
This sounds amazing and all but in most parts of the world a) you don’t have exclusively mobile internet SIMs b) you don’t have eSIMs and eSIM compatible devices c) mobile connections are metered (and expensive), so people talk on the ordinary cellular phone connections d) mobile data is slow and laggy, so calls frequently drop/are choppy/don’t connect at all e) you don’t have wifi in a lot of places f) people aren’t necessarily familiar with VOIP services
no such thing. just go for the cheapest. buy an rfid case when you are not using wireless networks, to avoid triangulation. Or buy a Fairphone/Librem 5/Shift6mq/PinePhone, those have hardware buttons to disable data receivers, but they cost a lot more than any other smartphone, but shouldn’t be a problem if you can afford Samsung or Apple
Just use the phone number to register to a secure messaging service and remove the sim.
You can do it in a crowder place with no cameras
If a messaging service requires a phone number then it’s not “secure” lol.
What about Signal then?
If I recall, Signal has gotten better in recent years in that you don’t necessarily need Google Play to use it anymore. But my issue with it is that their backend still seemed pretty centralized the last time I checked, which could get increasingly problematic moving forward, since they’re based in the US.
I meant that you need a phone number for registration.
No idea if they store the phone number, probably not.
they do, you log in based on your number so they have to store it one way or another
