Announcing Librem SIMple: An Affordable Cellular Plan that Protects Your Privacy

Hardware Librem 5
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We are excited to announce Librem SIMple: an affordable cellular plan that protects your privacy.

When we announced Librem AweSIM our goal was simple: provide a cellular service that protected your privacy. Cellular providers in the US are creating unified customer identifiers so they can “identify users across multiple devices and serve them relevant advertising.” With Librem AweSIM only we know the link between a phone number and a customer’s personal information.

Most companies think data is gold, and that’s why they are double-dipping from their paying customers to monetize customer data. We think data is uranium . We collect the minimum amount of customer data necessary to provide a service, and get rid of it once we no longer need it.

Librem 5 with Librem AweSIM Service
Librem 5 with Librem AweSIM Service1024×583 129 KB

AweSIM started as a premium $99/month fully unlimited prepaid plan . Since it has launched, a number of customers have told us they want the privacy protections AweSIM provides, but don’t need unlimited data and the premium that goes with it. Recently we have updated the back-end infrastructure that powers AweSIM so we can scale the service. That change now allows us to offer a new plan we are calling “Librem SIMple” that provides the same privacy protections, but with a 1GB monthly data limit and a $39/month price. We will also still be offering AweSIM with unlimited talk, text, and data for $99/month. Currently both services are for the US, with roaming included within the US, US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Canada, and Mexico.

SIMple is designed to work with Librem 5, and we are offering it as an add-on to existing Librem 5 orders before they ship. Customers who add AweSIM or SIMple service to their Librem 5 order get a phone that is ready out of the box to send and receive phone calls, texts, and use cellular data. Of course this isn’t a Librem 5-only service. You can also use AweSIM or SIMple on other unlocked phones in the US.

In a world that wants to track every move you make, it’s important to have alternatives that protect your privacy. Our hope is that by expanding AweSIM with a more affordable service, we can offer privacy protection to a wider range of people. Whether you use a Librem 5 or another unlocked phone, SIMple gives you a basic cellular plan with privacy protections at an affordable price. Sign up now!

Read the announcement here:

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This cheaper, lower-usage option is a very wise move. Good job!

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In case anyone is wondering, a typical customer’s average monthly cellular data useage, worldwide, in 2021, is 8.9 GB.

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My monthly average is about 100 megabytes. :rofl:

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Heh, yeah my data usage is also pretty low, but I also work from home and my phone is normally using WiFi for Internet. I’m not streaming a lot of videos when I’m out running errands :slight_smile:

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I went all the way to Checkout at the Purism store, and it’s not clear how to port your existing cellular phone number to SIMple. I suppose the porting is done after you sign up?

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Yes it’s something you will need to work with our team to do after sign-up, because porting your number requires you to give us permission (sign a form) to port it from your existing provider, and since there is some downtime in the process, we want to work with you to figure out the best time to do it.

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Is it as private as awesim?

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Yes, same exact infrastructure and policies. In general it’s the same as the AweSIM plan apart from the 1GB data cap.

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I am thinking about getting a SIMple service plan. If I shocked myself and found I actually need more than 1 GB of mobile data per month, would there be a way to upgrade service to the AweSIM level?

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Yes we provide a way to upgrade you to AweSIM. We’d need to charge the one-time AweSIM activation fee in that case but you should be able to keep the existing SIM.

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In any case, after 1GB is reached, you’d still get slow data for the rest of the month.

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Nice to see a service which is more affordable. I’m not asking for myself (since I only spend about $3 per month buying cellular credits), but is Purism thinking about offering group plans?

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It’s something we’ve considered and talked about, but haven’t really settled on what it would look like yet.

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Just putting it out there … it’s a big gap between 1 GB and “unlimited” i.e. the two plans offered. If this is ever offered outside the US, I would be advocating for a third price point that provides an intermediate amount of data (at an intermediate price), say, 10 GB or 12 GB.

1 GB and then slowed to 128 kbit/s … I have my doubts that that is a viable speed with today’s bloated, overengineered web sites. That’s dial-up modem on steroids (and the last time I actually used dial-up modem, admittedly quite a few years ago, many web sites were unusable). I would be uncomfortable leaving home with that as my option, “just in case”. Like some others I usually use relatively low amounts of mobile data because I mostly use the WiFi at home but there’s always the unforeseen.

I would be happy to waste money and data each month for the peace of mind, which is what I mostly do on my existing phones.

For another idea to throw into the mix … some providers allow you to roll unused data forward, within limits. That might make 1 GB per month viable (for me).

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Luckily for us, every damn website is desperately trying to redesign itself as “mobile” and dumbed down lately. (sarcasm) :roll_eyes:

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The Awsim and Simple products are definitely a step in the right direction and appear right now, to be the only privacy-respecting direction. There is only one thing holding me back from subscribing to one of them.

Right now, I use Google Voice. If I port my number from GV to Awsim, then Google is likely to track me after the port because they will still have my port-out information. My Samsung Note 9 is still and always will be, infested with Google tracking software. I have no control over that. Over time the information on my Awsim SIM card will become affiliated with my Note 9 and thus, everything about me personally. Then when my Librem 5 eventually arrives and I switch the Awsim SIM card in to my Librem 5, Google and affiliates will all link this unknown phone to me, because by then, they will know me by my Awsim SIM card by then. Then any time my Librem 5 is active via the SIM card, all of the spying will see my Librem 5 and know that I am the same person that they know me as right now on my Samsung phone, and just know that I have a phone that is more difficult for them to track. None the less, you can’t ever stop Google from retaining information that they already possess. If I wait for my Librem 5 to arrive, I’ll still need a new phone number to fully break the spying chain. That really socks because everyone who knows me, knows me by my current phone number.

Is this possible? I hope that these fears are unfounded.

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Before you switch to Awe/SIMple, dump the Samsung, port your GV number to a VOIP provider (EDIT: or jmp.chat ) and don’t use it on an Android. Then port the number from the VOIP provider to the Librem 5 SIM.

There shouldn’t be any SIM spying going on there, except by the underlying network (currently AT&T), but that’s not connecting to Google, and AT&T should only see, for instance, “Purism group.” (Hopefully.)

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What if we want to switch from AweSIM to SIMple? Will we have to wait for a new SIM card? Will there be any other complications in the transition?

The sign-up link only seems to address new customers, so I don’t even know if the sign-up fee applies.

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OK! Is there an option to buy additional chunks of data on the SIMple plan?

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