ossguy

Does it show eSIM providers that explicitly do not provide phone numbers? In particular, ones whose eSIM does not list any phone number that the OS can see (many "data-only" plans still have a phone number the OS can see/use).

The closest I found on eSIMDB was a "Hide data only plans (no Voice / SMS)" option, but that's sort of the opposite. I'd like to see "Hide plans that have a phone number" for example.

Mainly I ask because Apple-using friends of mine have told me that it's impossible to remove (e)SIM phone numbers from the iMessage database. There is apparently no setting to use to prevent Apple from making a (e)SIM phone number an option for iMessage, so it's important to have (e)SIMs that provide no phone number at all, to ensure that iMessage can't get confused about which identifiers the user actually wants available.

Basically everything is VoIP these days (VoLTE, etc.). Online services sometimes have secret lists of phone numbers they don't like, but "voipness" isn't a silver bullet for determining whether or not a service will like your number or not. The JMP people wrote more about this at https://blog.jmp.chat/b/2022-sms-account-verification

Anyway, this thread is about Signal, and JMP numbers work with Signal, which is why I suggested it.

Why do you need a German phone number? Many countries let anyone have a phone number, with no proof of address or other identifying information. Just use one of those numbers instead. One example service is https://jmp.chat/ but there are many others.

I'd be interested to hear more if you don't mind posting about which service(s) offer(s) this. If you'd rather tell me privately, email [email protected]

I think they meant https://jmp.chat/

https://jmp.chat/ supports both MMS and group texting, so it would give you the full Google Voice feature set. I'm not aware of any other service like this that supports group texting - most other services silently ignore group texts, so just be aware of that.

There's also https://wiki.soprani.ca/VonageSetup if you want to host the alternative yourself (though it doesn't support group texting).

The backend is Bandwidth. Since JMP uses an actual carrier instead of a reseller like Twilio, it is easier to fix issues and get questions answered, as there is one less level of tech support indirection.

It also means JMP's costs are lower (Twilio is extremely expensive) and gets more features (Twilio doesn't do group texting or messages to short codes).

While SIP does support messaging, it is extremely limited: text-only and single recipient (no picture messaging or group texts). So XMPP is a much better fit, as all the texting features people expect can be implemented over XMPP.

Yeah, JMP supports picture messaging and short codes, so works for most SMS-based 2FA. Group texting support will be completed in the next month or two, which would give JMP feature-parity with Google Voice. And you can run your own instance if you don't trust the one at https://jmp.chat/

Or to a service like https://jmp.chat/ that allows you to signup anonymously.

In practice it seems to work fine with the banks I've tried. There may be one or two that don't accept numbers whose type is listed as "voip", but they are in the minority.

There is also work being done to update the type field of JMP numbers so they appear as "mobile" instead.

That's how https://jmp.chat/ works, and you can make your phone number as arbitrarily secure as you want with JMP.

Any port-out requests are handled manually - you are contacted by a human to ensure that you made the request. You can ask them to put a verification code on file for you to confirm when this happens if you're concerned about the security of your XMPP account (which itself could use whatever kind of authentication scheme you like).

We don't always provide our complete number list at https://jmp.chat/ - as an example, we usually have off-list numbers available in area codes like 416 and 212.

Just message the JMP support number (+1 416 993 8000) or my Jabber ID, [email protected] , to let us know which area code(s) you're interested in and we can send you a number list.

It looks like BMW is not in compliance. As far as I can tell, no one has done a complete corresponding source (CCS) check on that code like we did for Tesla: https://lists.sfconservancy.org/pipermail/ccs-review/2018-Ma...

A brief look at the code BMW provided suggests they haven't provided any information on how to build or install the code, both of which are required by the GPL.

If you do find or receive source code from other car manufacturers, please try to build it before concluding that they are compliant. If you have trouble, please report this issue to us at https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-compliance/#reporting and we'll do our best to help.

Anyone can get a phone number anonymously from https://jmp.chat/ if they like. JMP lets you signup over Tor, and after the free trial you can pay in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies to keep the number.

Agreed that such services should stop using phone numbers. In the meantime, you can get inexpensive numbers from https://jmp.chat/ - useful for 2FA as well.

If you want to use an SDR instead of a dedicated 2G/3G/LTE modem, you would still need 2G/3G/LTE baseband firmware to teach your SDR how to access the cell network (if/when you wanted that). As mentioned by "pjc50", OsmocomBB (see https://osmocom.org/projects/baseband ) aims to do this for 2G, though it isn't quite ready yet. FreeCalypso (see https://www.freecalypso.org/software.html ) has a working 2G firmware, but is focused on very specific hardware. Note that any free/adaptable baseband firmware for 3G/LTE is still a long way off.

In the meantime, it's better to use a phone that gives you control over the cellular modem (if you still need the modem), as "confounded" suggested (with the Librem 5). Other phones similar to the Librem 5 are also specifically designed to ensure the modem is not doing anything unexpected, such as the Neo900: https://neo900.org/faq#privacy - "Unlike some other smartphones do, Neo900 won't share system RAM with the modem and system CPU will always have full control over the microphone signal sent to the modem. You can think of it as a USB dongle connected to the PC, with you in full control over the drivers, with a virtual LED to show any modem activity."

Regardless of which of these you choose, you can already separate your phone number from your SIM card with projects like https://jmp.chat/ so you don't need to use a cellular modem just to send/receive SMS/MMS and calls if you happen to be around wifi already. And you get other nice features like voicemail auto-transcribed and delivered as text by default, too (see https://jmp.chat/#voicemail for details).

So I'd start by using https://jmp.chat/ with your existing phone and phone number, then switch to new phones/modems as the modem separation gets better.

You could add this indirection layer with something like JMP instead.

With https://jmp.chat/ you don't need a SIM card at all - you just login to your phone number with an XMPP client (SMS/MMS) or SIP client (voice) and use it wherever you have an Internet connection. If you only want to use it at home, you can just use wifi and don't need to pay any cell carrier. But if you do want access to your number away from wifi, you can get a cheap data-only plan and use XMPP/SIP clients on your phone too. It's always up to you if you want to be tracked - you can turn off your phone('s modem) and use your number only over wifi whenever you like.

And it's easy to transfer your existing number into JMP - see https://jmp.chat/#existing for details.

https://jmp.chat/ supports MMS and concatenated SMS.

JMP has full support for sending and receiving picture messages, and can receive group texts as well (which Twilio doesn't support). Sounds like JMP is what you want for an SMS-over-XMPP solution.

You can even port in your number from your existing VoIP carrier - see https://jmp.chat/#existing for details.

You could use https://jmp.chat/ instead - JMP does support short codes, and you can use is anywhere you have Internet access, regardless of whether you have a SIM or not.

You could use https://jmp.chat/ for your phone number - with JMP your phone number is accessible whenever you have Internet, regardless of which wifi/carrier you're using. That probably gives it a few other advantages for a frequent traveller like yourself, aside from avoiding the account lockouts you mentioned.

You can get a phone number from https://jmp.chat/ if you like. The signup process can be done entirely over Tor.

If you don't use it beyond the trial, it's like the public payphone option mentioned by another commenter - someone could take your number. But if you choose to get a paid account (which, among other methods, can be acquired using Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, or a prepaid gift card purchased with cash), then the number will be yours. JMP is probably the most anonymous way of getting a phone number.

https://jmp.chat/ is a project I started, yes. There are about a dozen other people who work on it to varying extents (you can get a sense of this from the commit logs, some of which are linked below).

Based on https://gitlab.com/ossguy/sgx-catapult/commits/master and https://gitlab.com/ossguy/jmp-fwdcalls/commits/master it looks like I've been working on JMP's codebase for a little over 13 months now. Prior to that I worked on JMP's precursor (see https://github.com/ossguy/sopranica - also called "Phase 0"), which started about 4 years ago, and was more part-time.

Since I and a lot of my friends depend on JMP for their everyday communication, I'm not really interested in "exiting". If the project were to be sold, it would have to be to someone who cared about keeping the software free and open source, and who wanted to keep it on a federated network. I suspect going public would be a bad idea, because most of the public (i.e. investors) doesn't(/don't) care about JMP's values.

We publish an update on JMP and related projects every 1-2 months. We recently started using Mailman so you can find the past couple updates at https://soprani.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/jmp-news and signup if you like. For day-to-day updates, you can join our group chat at https://anonymous.cheogram.com/[email protected] (more options for joining are at https://jmp.chat/#support , including directly from your XMPP client). That's where the majority of project-related communication happens.

As with all carriers that offer US (and Canadian) numbers, they are required by law to let you port your number away. So you can always bring your number elsewhere if they decide to close up shop.

And if that happens, likely someone will setup another instance and keep the same service running. That's another great advantage of JMP over Google Voice: all the code is free and open source, so anyone is free to run their own instance if they like. In fact, you could run your own instance right from the start and then be in complete control of whether JMP keeps working for you.

For people that use Google Voice, that's often the hardest Google service to leave. You can get similar features with https://jmp.chat/ - it supports text and picture messaging (and voicemail transcription) and you can port in your Google Voice number to make the transition seamless for your contacts.

https://gajim.org/ tends to be best for desktop (binaries exist for most desktop OSes).

For macOS, you may want to try Adium or Psi. Or you can use https://movim.eu/ which, though a web client, has fairly good feature support as well.

Such a meta XEP exists already: https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0387.html#im

If you use a client that conforms to the Advanced Client requirements of the IM and Mobile Compliance Suites (with a similarly up-to-par server), you will have a very good experience.

In these cases you could use a https://jmp.chat/ phone number.

No smartphone is required for JMP, only an XMPP client (see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16352711 for some client options).

https://jmp.chat/ is a good alternative. Text and picture messaging over XMPP, and voice over real SIP (with voicemail transcribed to text).

There are lots of great XMPP clients, such as Conversations on Android, and Gajim or Adium on desktop. Or use https://movim.eu/ if you like a web client. iOS has a few options as well, including Tigase Messenger and IM+.

To clarify, by "we" I don't mean FSF. I work for a different 501(c)(3) non-profit.

It is not easy, especially if you don't already have an account at a Bitcoin exchange. See my other comment at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16277833 for more details (tl;dr: we've been looking/signing up for exchanges for over 3 weeks and none have responded to our signup request yet).