by dredmorbius | 2025-10-18 13:29:35+00:00
The approach @sipofwater takes here, in isolating the cellular network point-of-contact to a modem/router, which can reidentify itself (BSSID) and swap SIMs (this ... should be sufficient to break chain-of-event tracking, though you might find yourself burning through SIMs rather quickly), and relying on other, more-trusted devices for actual communications (voice, SMS (ugh!), Signal (much better), etc., is one I've been exploring for similar reasons. Suggested in a recent HN comment here: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45604692>.

I'd suggest a few further elements to this approach:

- Carry a small-form-factor laptop or palmtop (there are DIY/hobbyist options available, though no commercial products currently) for any substantive communications. Keyboards still beat touchscreens for input by a wide margin, and are usually preferable to speech. The device can of course be provided with a mic and camera should you choose (I'd prefer external and removable here as well). Hybrid devices (laptop/tablet) provide the capabilities of a modern tablet (Android / iOS) with the keyboard stowed, but are a full Real Computer with it exposed, without the crippling limitations of either Google or Apple's mobile OSes and app stores.

- Find or make a mobile Bluetooth / WiFi only voice device. If you're looking for the ability to make and take calls when on the road, a small-form-factor device that doesn't talk to the mobile network directly could be pretty slick. (This would also be useful at fixed locations such as a home, office, or business as a wireless phone.) Apparently setting up your own pre-G4 hotspot violates broadcast regulations in most jurisdictions, so popping up your own dedicated Starfish to serve an old flip / candy-bar phone is an unlikely option.

Another major annoyance of any PSTN voice comms is ever-increasing rates of phone spam. Unfortunately, lowering comms costs to nil makes highly-marginal antisocial behaviours all the more viable. This is a reason I'm looking for VOIP options (small / home office) in which:

- Inbound calls would be routed to the VOIP system, which would deny, challenge, take a message, or forward calls to my mobile platform based on identity / characteristics. This would preserve ability of high-value contacts to reach me directly, whilst denying others claims to my time and attention. A sufficiently robust message / forward system, with, e.g., visual voice mail or voice-to-text transcription would also address the frequently cited exceptional cases of being able to accept urgent or emergency calls from, e.g., healthcare providers, schools, etc.

- Outbound calls would also be routed through the VOIP system. Even with an otherwise bog-standard smart- or feature-phone, this would reduce the surveillance footprint and value of that device in that it would simply be making and taking calls from a single number. Your contacts and comms device are entirely segregated, and the comms device itself becomes disposable without sacrificing a stable point of contact (now the VOIP system).

SMS texts and some related phone-number-based ID validation procedures would remain an issue with this system, though TFA looks as if it's addressing these in at least part.