> This is one of the reasons I'm hoping for the open source phone community to succeed. So far, the modem stack is usually proprietary (with hardware kill switc

> This is one of the reasons I'm hoping for the open source phone community to succeed. So far, the modem stack is usually proprietary (with hardware kill switches in the most paranoid phones) [...] This is very unlikely to happen, primarily because certifying these modems is extremely expensive. I doubt any commercial vendor (e.g., a phone manufacturer) would commit the necessary resources to support them. Modern modems are also highly complex; they not only support various radio technologies but also incorporate numerous offloading mechanisms and a range of proprietary communication methods with telecom operators (e.g., VoLTE). Furthermore, the firmware must be carefully optimized for the hardware, so unless you have access to the complete package, this will likely remain confined to amateur circles. > I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the standard was written to make this kind of surveillance possible and that any modem refusing to cooperate would be spec incompliant. You can read most of the 3GPP spec for free on sites like https://portal.3gpp.org/ https://portal.3gpp.org/ but I don't have the time or interest to dig through the unreadable stream of abbreviations and industry terms to find out. The standard is written to accommodate the most prevalent use cases. Given the ongoing efforts to improve security and address known vulnerabilities, I highly doubt it was written with bad intentions. However, that does not mean they will catch everything, nor does it guarantee that they will always prioritize stronger security over better usability - whether for network operators or end users.