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I mostly use data-only SIMs on my phone and make/receive the very few calls I need to via VOIP, which is almost certainly the near future. For instance in Myan
by krrrh 9y ago
I mostly use data-only SIMs on my phone and make/receive the very few calls I need to via VOIP, which is almost certainly the near future.
For instance in Myanmar, where they have only had widespread mobile phone service for a couple of years, the most popular phone plans from Oodooroo are sold as data-only, and include info for downloading a VOIP app for legacy calls. I had an amusing time in one of their stores watching a perplexed staff try to deal with an older foreign man who frustratingly demanded to know how much he would need to pay for 100 "minutes". They just keept referring him to the chart that showed plans ranked only by the number of GBs.
- djsumdog 9y agoSo.. even data-only sims have an actual phone number right? That's baked into the GSM/HSDPA protocols right? (IIRC only WiMAX and LTE allow IP only without a number). So even those data-only plans must still have a number, that either never connects or cost something insane like 100MB worth per-min?
- krrrh 9y agoYeah there is a phone number. Usually it doesn't work for calls or SMS, or you can have that blocked for it. It's not worth using or thinking about. IMessage and Facetime work with email addresses, whatsapp and signal can be associated with any phone number, and don't need to use the one on your SIM card. Doing FaceTime audio or a VOIP service is at most half-a-MB per minute, and th call quality usually way better than regular cellular. Cheap over LTE, and inconsequential over wifi.
- fulafel 9y agoLTE phones pass your voice calls over VoIP behind the scenes, it's just hidden from the user. They call it VoLTE.