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

A friend asked me because I have free phone lines (e.g., Sideline, Google Voice/Hangouts, etc.) but *all* my equipment already has a SIM card.

Is there a way to get free telephone on GSM Android (tablets or phones) WITHOUT putting a SIM card into the phone?

Does it work on WiFi without a SIM card?

Reply to
Horace Algier
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voip works over wifi

Reply to
nospam

Sure. I carry a Moto G phone with no SIM. Sometimes the phone is on when I need to get a fast GPS fix or set the clock, which uses cellular time, not GPS time. However, mostly the phone section is turned off which is almost the same as not having a SIM. I use it as a PDA (personal digital accomplice), GPS mapping, min-tablet, and of course VoIP phone via Wi-Fi using Skype and various SIP phone providers (Future-Nine, Callcentric, etc). The nice part is that I got the phone new for peanuts. Best Buy had a deal with Verizon. I buy the phone from BB for about $50. Then, I'm suppose to activate it with Verizon. Just one problem... I didn't bother activating it. So, I have a nifty mini-tablet with a 911 only phone.

As for tracking, there are patents on all kinds of bizarre tracking devices. Caltrans counts and possibly tracks cars by their Bluegoof ID number. Stores track customers around by their infrared signature. There are devices that will direction find smartphones using Bluegoof, wi-fi, or cellular allegedly for finding earthquake and disaster victims in the rubble. License plate readers are epidemic. There are biometric ID devices that will recognize people by their "emissions" which includes olfactometry (smell). I used to work on that stuff 40 years ago. There's a contraption that measures floor pressure from your weight. Using recorded weight and stride, it will follow you around a store. Meanwhile, auto makers and rentals cars conveniently leave RFID tags in their cars.

Give up while you're still sane.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

My fault for not being clear that a legitimate phone number was the goal. Both sending & receiving POTS calls, for example.

Can VOIP receive a POTS call? That is, does VOIP give you a real phone number of the format: 1-800-555-1212

Reply to
Horace Algier

Too late!

Thanks Jeff for answering, as you're one of the few people here who back up what you say.

Assuming Airplane mode is not on, without a SIM card, I think the phone still pings cellular towers, for 911 (and 611) reasons.

VOIP isn't the same as a "phone number". What this friend is seeking is a phone number that can call POTS lines and which can receive phone calls (I think receiving is the main goal) from POTS lines.

I have free phone calls to and from my tablets, for example, whether on WiFi or out on the road - but those tablets have a SIM card.

You might be able to turn that mini-tablet into a "real" phone with a real phone number, that can send and receive calls from a POTS line, for free.

I do that, for example, with my iPads, by installing Google Voice and Hangouts. That way I can SMS send and receive texts and I can make and receive POTS calls to the USA for free, just like with a real phone.

But I don't know if the SIM card is involved in that process. Is it?

Reply to
Horace Algier

voip provides a legitimate phone number.

yep.

seriously??

do you even know what voip *is* ?

that number is already taken.

Reply to
nospam

Either you don't understand the question, or you are just being cryptic for no good reason.

I've seen this behavior from you so many times, that I've learned the following:

5% of the time, you actually know what you're talking about. 5% of the time, you don't actually *understand* the question. 90% of the time you're just being duplicitous (for whatever pleasure it gives you).

The point is that a real phone number is required for this to work.

I have Ooma and many of my friends and relatives have Vonage, but we're not talking about physical phones - so - you must understand that physical VOIP is not the question.

We're talking about using a GSM moboile phone WITHOUT the SIM card yet still getting, for free, a real phone number that calls other phone numbers and that receives calls from other phone numbers, for free.

Of course on WiFi, that GSM device (with or without a SIM card) can make calls *to a computer* and it can receive calls *from a computer* but we were never talking about *that* type of VOIP.

I have *plenty* of VOIP device, e.g., I use Ooma all the time and I have hangouts/gv on my iPads which can send and receive both calls and SMS for free to and from POTS lines.

But I have a SIM card in *all* my mobile devices. I'm asking if this can be done *without* a SIM card.

Here's one of the times where you don't even understand the simplest of questions. If you can't understand a 555-1212 foo-style example, then you're *never* gonna understand the complexities of this question.

Reply to
Horace Algier
[...]

Leave out the "GSM" bit or replace it with something else. By using it (several times) in this context, you're - once more - showing that you don't know what you're talking about.

As to your question: With a proper setup, you don't need a SIM and if there's a SIM in the device, it's not used.

Clue-by-four: Why don't you take the SIM out of your device and see what happens? IOW, why endlessly whinge about something you can test yourself in a few minutes?

Next non-issue.

Reply to
Frank Slootweg

Ooma is lovely, but I've never been able to convince any of our friends to get one. ~$4/month. We let the first year of free premium service lapse because it just didn't seem that useful to us.

Add a Sentry anti-telemarker device for ~$57 and life gets a LOT better. Robocalls are killed automatically, along with the numbers of known national telemarketers. Local telemarketers are requested to hang up, and we never hear the phone ring. Humans have to press 0 to be connected, and are immediately whitelisted. We've only had one lying telemarketer ("Hi, this is Jim, do you remember we were talking about gold a few months ago..."), who we immediately blacklisted.

Reply to
The Real Bev

Most commercial VoIP services rent you a real local phone number that allows you to receive calls from any phone. Incalls are usually free. You can send calls to any phone with or without renting a number. But outcalls are not free in most cases. No SIM card needed either way.

Hangouts and VoIP don't need a SIM card if the calls are made over WiFi.

Reply to
M.L.

What I think is funny is that I also try to get others to use Ooma. Basically, you get service forever for the price of tax.

The device costs about $150 but Costco has it on sale a lot (or at least they used to).

I also let the premium lapse. It only gave me the option to *conference* but I can already do that with my cellphone, so, it's not a big loss.

I never give out my phone number, so I never get telemarketer calls.

BTW, *four* people I know have used the Ooma ploy to *halve* their Vonage bill.

For whatever reason, they stick to Vonage because they *think* Ooma will go out of business. If Ooma goes out of business *after* one year, they still win, but math is lost on them.

ANyway, at least they can *halve* their Vonage bill, simply by *telling* Vonage they're gonna go to Oooma. *Instantly* Vonage offers to half the bill from something like 30-something a month to about 15 or so a month.

Worked four times in a row so far ...

Reply to
Horace Algier

I think it was $100 when we bought it from Costco. Every once in a while Ooma sends me an offer for $20 providing I get a friend to buy a unit at $20 off -- generally $80 or $90. I post that too, but nobody ever takes me up on it. They don't even have to say I referred them, but NOOOO!

We've had the same phone number since 1959, so we're in LOTS of lists. Recently most of them were for local home remodeling businesses, but now it's just all day!

We canceled AT&T (~$30 just for LOCAL calls, no LD at all) when we got the Ooma. GOD I hate AT&T.

Fear does strange things.

We have to haggle with Charter to get their "introductory" rate. It worked for quite a few years, but the last one the best they could do was $10/month off. We once DID cancel them for dialup (there's still a good local dialup) so we're on record for not making idle threats. So for $54/month we get internet and landline. Grandfathered T-Mobile $10/year plan for cell (no data, of course). Can't get much cheaper.

Reply to
The Real Bev

Yup. Costco ran sales all the time on the Ooma Telo and others. Most people seem to be *afraid* of Ooma.

They don't want to take any *risk*.

I, myself, think Ooma must go out of business since they make zero money off of me other than the International calls at about 2 cents a minute.

But, heck - that is what keeps Skype in business - and - as I said, once you've had Ooma for a few months, it's free after that in that it has paid for itself over Vonage.

OMG. I was only in high school when you got that phone number!

Yup. We had the Ooma and the landline for a while - but then we dropped the landline. I wonder if anyone still has a landline?

Yup. The people who buy Vonage over Ooma do it on fear and fear alone, it seems.

Just like the Apple people - I'll be they're the same.

If you have a tablet, and if you're in the USA, T-Mobile gives you a free

200MB per month. I have two of those. But you have to have a SIM card in the tablet.

For Comcast cable, I just recently had a kid call me telling me they raised her introductory rate from about 45 bucks to about 70 bucks because the 12 month introductory rate expired.

In the past, you'd just call Comcast and say "hey, gimme back my introductory rate" and they'd do it, but they gave us a hard time.

SO, I looked up a house for sale in Zillow, and I impersonated that house (which, luckily for me, did not currently have Comcast service) and got a

*great* rate (better than her old rate) as an introductory rate.

When we called back with *that* information, they gave her that introductory rate.

But it took 4 separate phone calls:

  1. She called and they wouldn't lower the rate
  2. I called and they wouldn't lower the rate
  3. I called as a zillow house - and they gave me a better rate.
  4. She called with that information - and they gave it to her.
Reply to
Horace Algier

You were certainly not clear in your original post and this muddies the waters again. Does you friend really want to use a current POTS setup to make and receive VOIP calls or does she want to use a mobile phone or computer.

In either case she does not need to have a SIM card in any mobile phone.

A VOIP provider can supply a real incoming phone number. They can also make it look as though an outgoing call came from a "real phone number". The phone service will not be free but you can find one that only charges on usage and the cost will be roughly the same as Skype out.

Your friend still has to convert incoming and outgoing VOIP calls to something that suits whatever phone she is using.

Reply to
Gordon Levi

I checked into that. Unfortunately, my tablets are sim-free. Perhaps my next phone will have dual-sim capability and maybe then it will work. I live in fear of T-M dropping the $10 plan -- I don't even use the 30 additional minutes it buys me. I've got something like 600 minutes banked.

Reply to
The Real Bev

Horace Algier schrieb am 2016-09-15 um 19:55:

When you define "free telephone" as "free VoIP service" - yes.

Yes - as long as you install an app for this which handles VoIP. Android itself does not need a SIM card to be online via WiFi.

Reply to
Arno Welzel

Horace Algier schrieb am 2016-09-16 um 20:11:

Depends on the service you use. But generally - yes, this is possible using a SIP service.

Reply to
Arno Welzel

Horace Algier schrieb am 2016-09-16 um 21:30:

[...]

VoIP providers give you a "real phone number"!

Even many landline systems use VoIP nowadays.

[...]
1) Look for a SIP provider and register a phone number there 2) Install a VoIP app which supports SIP on the phone and use this number via WiFi

No - it can also make calls to regular phone numbers. Usually *making* calls is not for free and you have to pay for a plan at the SIP provider, but *receiving* calls is usually for free - on a regular phone number.

Reply to
Arno Welzel

We're getting a bit sloppy with terminology here!

nospam says "voip provideS". You say "VoIP provideRS". (In both cases the emphasis is mine.)

Strictly speaking, both sentences are wrong in the sense that they can be true, but are not neccessarily true in all cases. Luckily you explain what you mean by later (see below) talking about getting a SIP provider and phone number.

[Left for completeness/reference:]
Reply to
Frank Slootweg

which tablets are those??

apparently you didn't check into that very much, since t-mobile's free plan is for tablets *only* and won't at all in a phone, no matter how many sim slots it has.

it's not a "$10 plan". it's a monthly pay as you go plan that happens to have a 1 year expiration for gold members. their monthly pay as you go plans now have a $3/mo minimum. there also is no data so if you do get a new phone you'll need to change it.

Reply to
nospam

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