Seeking Recommendations for Cellular Providers for the Librem 5

Freedom Mobile works fine.

1 Like

AT&T does not work. Similarly, unless I am mistake Mint Mobile no longer supports phones that cannot support its application.

These are at least the two big issues I am aware of.

1 Like

Can you comment on that, @amarok?

So as a corollary, you are saying that Mint Mobile doesn’t allow dumb phones (i.e. you know, actual mobile phones to make phone calls) on its network at all?

1 Like

So as a corollary, you are saying that Mint Mobile doesn’t allow dumb phones (i.e. you know, actual mobile phones to make phone calls) on its network at all?

I might be misataken in this. Mint mobile officially requires the Android application and it is the only way listed on their SIM card kit:

https://www.mintmobile.com/how-to-activate-your-mint-mobile-plan/

However, I looked at Google, and it appears they have a separate URL that might work.

https://my.mintmobile.com/activation

I have a Mint mobile prepaid SIM and will attempt to activate it and then respond again if it is supported.

Thank you so much for all of your time and support.

2 Likes

I’ve been using Librem 5 as my phone since 2023. There are other people who get in situations such as:

… but I think actually maining Librem 5 as the only phone like how I have been living, you might need to be ready to pull out the big guns. AI is almost conscious. The almost-conscious enemy is going to backstab you when you try to deny him his opportunity to use you freely as a spy.

I solved it by letting them use me as a spy anyway. I just wanted to use Librem 5 no matter what. And that led me to realize, SMS technology tied to phone is a scam. I use an SMS provider that supports web logins over HTML and JavaScript. This is nonfree JavaScript so the whole entire thing is moral compromise and hypocritical tomfoolery. But, using nonfree JavaScript to do my SMS and calling means that I can use my Librem 14 to do wifi calling and texting, and use only data from the SIM on my Librem 5. So the SMS from the SIM card on my Librem 5 died a while ago and never came back, and now the Librem 5 doesn’t get the SMS messages anymore because of the programming errors in the chatty tool. There’s a way to fix it with command line, but I got bored of that. Instead, what I do is to log into a browser on the Librem 5 and do my SMS and calling from in the browser if I need to. And, if I need to take an important call, then I answer with the Librem 14 so that I know all systems will be fully operational.

But, then you can have problems like when the NSA/CIA/FBI or whatever pushed an update to the web browser I was using on my Librem 5 so that it no longer opens. Then I have to start using a new web browser this month. You kind of sort of have to be constantly vigilant and on the move, looking to find whatever works for you, within the confines of constant moral compromise and hypocrisy. At least, that’s what works for me.

A coworker told me that it didn’t make sense to him that I was using a Librem 5. He said that he wasn’t nefarious or dangerous, so his personal data did not matter at all. But I told him that my personal data matters and I need to use a Librem 5 because I am likewise not nefarious or dangerous, but the other machines like Android and iOS were trying to radicalize me into becoming nefarious or dangerous and I don’t want to do that. I just want to be more of like a chill guy who lives his life, does cool tech projects, and has some good friends.

2 Likes

I don’t know anything about that; it sounds unlikely that an app would be the only way to activate service. If the phone is your only device, for instance, meaning you don’t even have home wifi, how would you download the app if your phone service isn’t yet activated? Maybe I’m misunderstanding the Mint Mobile requirement… can’t access the link at the moment because…

Sorry, you have been blocked

You are unable to access mintmobile.com

===

… due to VPN? Browser privacy addons? :man_shrugging:
See: Back to 1990 on My Librem 5 - #5 by amarok

2 Likes

I can confirm that that web site is accessible to me on a desktop on the other side of the planet. So I suppose it is some difference between your environment and my environment. PrivacyBadger certainly blocked some trackers but not enough to stop the web site working.

1 Like

I think the way AirVPN works raises flags for some websites.

2 Likes

I could change servers and try again, but I’m heading to bed now. :yawning_face:

2 Likes

Web site does say:

Activating a trial or Share the Love Kit?

You’ll need to download our Mint Mobile app to activate and manage your trial.

I don’t know what a Share the Love Kit is but I’m willing to bet, based on the name, that it will overpromise and underdeliver. :rofl:

3 Likes

Theoretically speaking, it could activate in steps. So, in the first step, you can get on the mobile data network but you can only access a very small number of sites, sufficient to download and install and run the app. Once you then run the app, the app does the second step, and you then have normal access to the internet. That would be quite evil but that certainly doesn’t rule it out as a possibility.

The problem with that, assuming that this is your only device, is that if this is a brand new spyphone then you might never get through all the Duopoly BS of activating a new spyphone … before you get to the point of being able to download and install apps. (In other words, that “very small number of sites” would rapidly balloon to a large and unknown number of sites if you have to be able to e.g. create a freemail account to use with your spyphone registration, access said account, …)

2 Likes

The world loves an app a vector for collecting usage data.

1 Like

I’ve been daily driving my Librem5 using AT&T.

3 Likes

Good. Guess AT&T isn’t restricting the BM818 after all.

2 Likes

One idea is to run the Mint Mobile app in Waydroid.

2 Likes

Yep. Better for privacy, but my first point (apparently unfounded) was about if you don’t have an internet connection at all anywhere when needing to install the app for activation.

Btw, it seems that said app is only required for the free trial, which is probably a differently programmed SIM card if it’s similar to the one I once tried from Mint’s sibling company Ultra. (It can’t be converted to a regular plan afterward.)

1 Like

A complication with a statement like that is that some of us (may or may not include you) activated our SIMs in other phones and then moved the SIM to the Librem 5 when the latter became available.

So it depends on whether the evil MNO/MVNO checks only at activation or checks all the time at or during registration on the mobile network.

2 Likes

Use Wi-Fi to set up on Waydroid?

1 Like

Please read the posts above where @amarok lays out the hypothetical conditions that apply.

There are people around whose only connection to the internet is via a mobile phone and indeed, further, whose only internet access device is said mobile phone.

3 Likes

I activated my Mint Mobile SIM card for my Librem 5 on an older Android phone and then inserted it in to the Librem 5 after I tested it and had it working on the other phone. Mint Mobile works on the Librem 5 just fine with all expected features there. I attached that SIM card/Librem 5 account to my Mint Mobile family (a Mint Mobile feature in their app that runs on my Android phone), so that the Mint Mibile account for my Librem 5 is listed in, and can be managed by my Android phone as a family member phone. That’s where I pay for the annual renewal for Mint Mobile on my Librem 5 (from my Android phone). But, I was also able to log in to my Mint Mobile account on my Librem 5 from the web browser. From the Librem 5, my login and the web page based features look exactly as if I were using the Android app. So I have not lost anything when using Mint Mobile on my Librem 5. I can see how much data I have left throughout the month on the Librem 5, and have all other features there.

I didn’t want to trust the SIM card activation process for Mint Mobile to the Librem 5. Somehow, I expected difficulty and I didn’t want to even get in to explaining to a Mint Mobile customer service person what the Librem 5 is and why they should let me activate their network SIM on a phone they couldn’t identify or might object to. Sure enough, I ended up needing their help to get that SIM card activated. I remember telling them that the phone was a Samsung Note 8 (which was true), and giving them my Note 8 IMEI number. After the SIM card worked and I could call in to the phone number from another phone, I moved that SIM from the Note 8 to the Librem 5. There have been no issues since then. The Mint Mobile web app is designed to match the Android app perfectly. It also matches the size and shape of the Librem 5 screen perfectly. So your use of Mint Mobile on a Librem 5 is pretty much exactly the same as it is on an Android phone.

3 Likes