Android GSM free telephone WITHOUT SIM card (is it possible on WiFi?

The Android phone is a cheap (less than $100) GSM Android phone and the friend doesn't want to buy a SIM card for it.

He simply wants to have a "free" phone when on WiFI with a "real number" that can make and receive calls from any other phone.

Since nospam is more often wrong than he is right, I will concur with him on this one, in that T-Mobile only offers the free 200MB/month for "tablets" (whether Android or iOS), so, a "phone" won't be eligible.

So, in this case, nospam is correct (as he is in the case below).

I used to use the AT&T and T-Mobile pay-as-you-go plans, both non-gold and gold.

With AT&T, they used to suck out three or so bucks a month, so, it was really a 3/buck-a-month and then pay as you go plan. The pay as you go part was something like 30 cents a minute (as I recall), so that sucked too.

So I went to T-Mobile, who would just drop the entire amount if I let it lapse - so that sucked also. Of course, if you kept putting money in, then it worked fine, and when you got to $100, you became gold.

I think *now* they require a single payment of $100 (I think - but I'm not sure) whereas in the olden days, you just had to accumulate 100 dollars.

Even so, if you let it lapse, they'd *expire* the darn SIM cards, so I had to buy a new SIM card whenever I wanted to start it back up, even though there was nothing physically wrong with the old SIM card (I have a stack of them lying in a drawer somewhere).

Overall...

Using the pay-as-you-go (for me) was such a pain that I dropped altogether the pay-as-you-go stuff, in favor of a second phone number on my cellphone (e.g., sideline) for free.

Even Sideline will drop you if you don't use it - but there's no cost involved, and, in a way, it's a privacy measure such that you don't always have the same number.

projection

so not more often wrong.

then you were on a shitty plan.

when i used at&t paygo, it was 10c/min, no monthly minimum.

every prepaid plan drops the entire amount if you let it lapse.

they don't, but $100 up front is a better deal.

they don't expire sims that are in use.

looks like you're wrong more than you're right.

The easiest way to achieve most of this is with Skype . Skype will provide a real number almost anywhere in the world and his callers will be charged their standard rates to call this number. Skype will then handle the incoming call so that it will show up on his cell phone as a normal Skype call. Skype out will let him call real numbers from his phone at greatly reduced prices compared to standard cell phone charges. Skype out can display his Skype number as his caller ID.

I'm not sure why he would want to "make calls from any other phone" using his Skype number but Skype won't let him do that. Of course he can use any Skype capable device to make calls. Alternatively Skype will supply a roaming number in many countries so that he can make calls at Skype prices from other phones without using the Skype application.

There are dozens of other VOIP providers that supply similar services. A few will supply a real telephone number at no charge. In all cases only the direct connection of two users using the same VOIP provider are free to both ends of the call.

Most VOIP providers use SIP but Skype uses its own protocol for connecting calls. This won't matter to your friend unless he wants to add specialised hardware or software to his VOIP set up.

Thanks for the additional advice.

I've done some more research and if he is going to use VOIP, I'm sure it would be Hangouts/GV which is free to call anyone in the USA, unlike SkypeOut/SkypeIn, which isn't free (I don't think).

So, GV/Hangouts gives him:

- A free phone number

- Free USA calls

- Calls to or from any phone (including POTS)

- Free unlimited texts (I'm not sure about MMS)

Horace Algier schrieb am 2016-09-18 um 03:40:

This is not possible. Usually only receiving calls on a "real number" via WiFi and SIP is possible for free, but not making calls.

there are.

Whatever telephony you can muster up for an internet-connected computer you can muster up equally well for an internet-connected SIM-less cellphone -- just another computer, after all :-) . HTH. Cheers, -- tlvp

Really? Your number never gets randomly included in the 0000-9999 sweeps the telemarketeers' predictive dialing software indulges in? You've got better luck than I have, Gunga Din :-) . Cheers, -- tlvp

You can't use a GSM phone without a SIM card to make non-emergency calls. You can use a device with WiFi connected to the web and an operating system and application that support VOIP to make and receive phone calls via WiFi. "SIM" and "GSM" are not involved in any way.

We can talk more about that, after you are finished with the pissing contest with nospam.

snip

nospam schrieb am 2016-09-19 um 23:52:

I said "usually" not "only". There may be SIP providers where you can make calls for free as well - but those I know ask for a fee for outgoing calls.

Is Hangouts/GV SIP VOIP?

Probably not an issue for 99% of people, but be aware that outgoing GV calls silently drop after 180 minutes. I thought I'd use GV to dial into some all-day presentations but found that I had to re-initiate the call every 3 hours.