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Living without a SIM card

habd.as

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Re: Living without a SIM card

#171

Post by matz1 »

jakobegger wrote: post #27
njitbew wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My sister’s former boyfriend used to carry a phone without a SIM. His mom ended up calling my sister or our landline to check up on her son. It was annoying AF. Feel free to live off the grid, but please make sure you don’t leech off of those around you.

> make sure you don’t leech off of those around you I think that's a toxic attitude. Picking up the phone for someone else every now and then is really not a big of a hassle. Obviously I don't know the whole situation, but in general I do think that one should be ready to do such minor favors for another human being without calling them a leech.

Sure, it is not a hassle for you but it can be a huge hassle for other people.

Re: Living without a SIM card

#172

Post by kaiwen1 »

I've been without a SIM for over a year. Here are a few more tips:

- Google Voice gives you a free number that works anywhere and can be used for texting and 2FA. (There are some exceptions.)

- Calling with Google Hangouts is free to some countries, cheap in others, and can be configured to show your Google Voice number as the caller. Unfortunately, the call quality cans be pretty bad, definitely worse than, say, Skype.

- Google Maps offline works great on iPhone.

It feels liberating to have no SIM. I'm not always reachable, and that's a good thing. I'm not always connected to the internet, also a good thing. I usually near urban or suburban areas, so free WiFi is everywhere. When I want to connect, I connect. Easy.

Along with living without SIMs, my family also has a policy of No Screen Day (NSD) once a week. We all put our phones, computers, etc in closet at 11pm and don't touch them until 6am two days later. No TV, no going to movies theaters, no screens of any kind. We love our NSDs. They cause us to do different kinds of things, sometimes just read books. It usually the best day of the week.

Re: Living without a SIM card

#173

Post by fulafel »

thefounder wrote: post #154
chewz wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have edited my answer. Most institutions I know have chosen SMS for Strong Customer Authentication which means sooner or later you in practical life will need your personal SIM card (banking, doctor visit, e-prescription, e-government etc.). Unless you chose to live off the grid for real.

sms is not PSD2 compliant which means it can't be used as SCA method https://www.zdnet.com/article/german-banks-are-moving-away-f...

This article summarizes a document that's titled "opinion". As long as there is no definite legal outlawing of SMS, many banks will continue to use it.

Re: Living without a SIM card

#174

Post by ddalex »

jowsie wrote: post #162
Joeri wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Banks in the US and EU are required to have the identity on file for all bank accounts (ostensibly to combat terrorism), so sharing your phone number with them shouldn’t change the level of privacy. If it is cost people are worried about they can get a prepaid card and never use it except to receive sms. That’s effectively free. Combined with the push to get rid of anonymous accounts and phone numbers there has also…

I'm not sure how common it is, but in the UK I've known people who have been forced to use their 'free' SIM or risk having the number revoked and the SIM disabled.

What do you mean? How were they forced to use a number they didn't want? Why would they care if a number they don't what get disabled?

Re: Living without a SIM card

#175

Post by ip26 »

nmstoker wrote: post #58

One major advantage is the impact on phone battery life - partly because various services aren't repeatedly pinging over the mobile network (especially in "notspots"), WiFi tends not to burn through battery. And partly because it tends to change your behaviour to do more focused things (the phone isn't constantly trying to distract you as it often can't, so you don't then waste time and power on these distractions).…

Cellular really isn't all that power hungry, the problem is really data period, i.e. your phone being awake at all. If you get a 500MB plan, set everything unimportant to restrict background data, and turn off WiFi your phone can last for days.

Re: Living without a SIM card

#176

Post by fulafel »

chewz wrote: post #129

I envy the OP. Unfortunately since September 2019 living without SIM card became (practically) illegal in EU. > most online payments above €30 to go through an extra level of verification such as entering a code received via a text message. [2] Most banks unwisely chosen SMS as Strong Customer Authentication providing little choice to customers. https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/payment-services-psd-2-directi... [2] http…

Be careful what you wish for. Probably if banks are forbidden from using SMS they'll force you to use a mobile app on your Google mobile implant. (And the app will refuse to run if you have root on the phone, facilitated by strong DRM mechanisms)

Re: Living without a SIM card

#177

Post by ddalex »

chewz wrote: post #157
dangus wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But also, I think you have that situation understood the other way around. SMS was chosen because everyone has it already . So it's not a matter of being forced to have it, it's a matter of "all other alternatives are less widespread." I think there are actually more people globally with access to mobile phones than people who have access to basic sanitation, i.e. flushing toilets. I'm sure that many or most of those…

Yes but situation before September was that I could use my account without SIM card. Now access to my account requires having a SIM card and a phone. Now imagine taking all my six SIM cards on vacation to Thailand just because you may be in need to urgently use one of my multiple bank or brokerage accounts ;-)

So you're complaining of having to use a SIM while you have 6 SIMs?

Re: Living without a SIM card

#178

Post by koolba »

ddalex wrote: post #174
jowsie wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure how common it is, but in the UK I've known people who have been forced to use their 'free' SIM or risk having the number revoked and the SIM disabled.

What do you mean? How were they forced to use a number they didn't want? Why would they care if a number they don't what get disabled?

> Why would they care if a number they don't what get disabled?

If you gave it as a security contact number to a financial institution you’d care if it was disabled.

Re: Living without a SIM card

#179

Post by jhabdas »

hilbert42 wrote: post #168

My smartphones NEVER have SIM cards in them—as I'm not that stupid so as to become just another easy target of surveillance capitalism! Instead, they connect by Wi-Fi to external portable routers that do have SIMs installed in them. As such, these phones can connect to the internet but cannot be used be used to make telephone calls. Thus, there cannot be any cross-reference between my actual telephone number and my i…

Best comment in the thread. Thanks for keeping it real, chief.

Re: Living without a SIM card

#180

Post by guidance »

Spooky23 wrote: post #120
neiman wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> His mom ended up calling my sister or our landline to check up on her son. It was annoying AF. What you call "annoying AF" was reality for many many years, and yet people were not constantly annoyed..

It was a different time. The cost of communication is near zero, so if you can’t be bothered, people get annoyed.

> 'The cost of communication is near zero'

You mean the 'cost of interrupting other people while they are in the middle of living their lives' is near zero. On the other side of the coin, the cost of being constantly interrupted by beeping, buzzing, ringing, and jingling of every asshole in the county who calls/text on a moment's whim, and gets annoyed/offended when I don't instantly respond, is not zero.

Likewise, the cost of being constantly surveilled by intelligence agencies and evil corporations is definitely nowhere near zero.

I live completely off the grid. Far from giving a fuck about how offended/inconvenienced others are by my lifestyle, I purposely disconnected from all of those people. Life for me is much better now.

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