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anyone had luck with these fly-by night cell carriers? (lemm.ee)

submitted 4 months ago by pelletbucket@lemm.ee to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I see ads all the time for shit like consumer Cellular, mint mobile, stuff that rents time on Verizon towers and sells you a plan for like half the price.

I'm trying real hard to de-Xfinity myself but the cellular plan is the cheapest of all the major companies. Yes, I know they also piggyback off the Verizon network, but at least they have 24/7 support

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[–] jet@hackertalks.com 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The connection to the network is fungible.

If the phone number you give everybody is a voip number, like Google voice...

Then it doesn't matter who your cell phone carrier is. Buy the cheapest one, month to month.

Visible is a good option. Just don't move your phone number. Leave your phone number on VoIP. Don't give anybody the phone number of your phone.

A couple reasons, first it's the easiest to move your phone around if you don't have to move the number, second nobody can track your location by looking up your phone number if they don't have your physical phone number. VoIP does not map to your phone

[–] pelletbucket@lemm.ee 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

yeah I've been doing that, only my alarm company and my bank have my real phone number and that's only because they won't accept voip. I got spooked about sim-swapping a while ago

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

You can use Google fi as a non-voip voip number. It just costs $20 a month.

It's not frugal, but it's the most secure way to do it

[–] pelletbucket@lemm.ee 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

what exactly is Google Fi? I'm reading the website and I still don't understand. are they a cell carrier?

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Mvno. Mobile virtual network operator.

It's like Google voice, but you also get a SIM card and data with it.

The phone number you have on it, does not show up as a VoIP number, shows up as a normal mobile number. Even if you only access it via messenger and not via SMS.

[–] Bitrot@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 4 months ago

I used them for a while but it’s really worth considering the full privacy implications of using Google for cell service. Also, since it’s tied to a Google account if that account is suspended for any reason, like a YouTube comment or some file uploaded to drive that they don’t like, your cell service is also affected.