I have a phone with no sim that I use sometimes over wifi, but I have another one with a sim that I sometimes use as a wifi hot spot for the no-sim phone.

I use phones without Sims, but it’s because I’m cheap and I have a collection of weird phones.

My kids have phones with no SIM card; they can call 911 and they can use WiFi when in range; I have them set up with a VPN to home, so that’s the only connection any hotspot sees.

i have my boss’s old one here that’s pretty much only used for testing mobile web and for its camera. i use a ‘dumb’ phone, and its camera doesn’t work (was crap-tier anyway when it did). i think it has 10 on it. it doesn’t leave the office, doesn’t get used that much, and has no google account linked to it anymore since it was totally reset when it was replaced earlier in the year… the inability to use google play to install a few apps reduces its usefulness. i got f-droid on it but not everything is available from it.

I do have a SIM card for emergencies but I keep it on flight mode 100% of the time.

jmp.chat/sim

Extremely useful if you are in North America regularly but not enough to justify a data plan. Still competitive with every single other pay-as-you-go plan in the states by at least 30% I have checked lol. The phone number service combined with it is useful because you get data-based phone calls from North America and Canada when you’re abroad (you can hook it up to a bunch of other different services too check the site but I’m assuming based on the user base of this site) and it’s super cheap, can maintain different numbers and track down who is getting you spam callers etc. Pay-as-you-go looks expensive but you’d be surprised how many services can be squeezed into a text-only minimal data kind of workflow. I can give you a list of apps that work well with under 1GB/month mobile data usage. You do kind of need either a model w a SD card slot or a chunky 512GB+ future ebrick Pixel model because using minimal data ends up using a lot of storage. Works best if you are usually on WiFi or have a hotspot (not sure if Calyx institute still exists but I used that a few years ago and it was very funny).

Anyways that’s how you operate without a real data plan but both jmp and calyx are secretly T-Mobile but shhhhhh don’t say it loudly

You can call emergency services even without a sim, so you might not be as disconnected as you would think

I have a data-only sim, otherwise no sim for phone calls. My phone stays in airplane mode nearly always. I use voip to make and receive calls when wifi is an option. Most voip providers, afaik, are not privacy respecting including the one I use. Planning on switching to jmpchat someday which is all about privacy.

I have a Pixel 7a with GOS in airplane mode, with WiFi only. My old phone with the sim inserted is on Lineage OS and hasn’t fully (has a case of occasional ghost touch) died yet. I only use the old phone for cellular telephony.

That’s a strange argument, why do you and lots of people replying here believe they are NOT tracked over WiFi which are themselves relying on ISPs?

If you don’t trust your ISP why would you trust random ISPs more?

No I have people I want to be able to contact me.

If I had to go WiFi-only, there would probably be hours-long gaps when I am unreachable. So my compromise is to use a non-KYC data-only SIM. Even if VPN is left off, it routes traffic first to a datacenter far from my actual location, and there is no longer a route for unencrypted calls and SMS and the associated spam. I don’t have a habit of streaming media on the go, so the data lasts quite a while and there isn’t much of an urge to use public WiFi.

Doesn’t fully eliminate the problem as IMEI is still sent and the cellular modem is still a rogue black box, but a step in the right direction. Knowing that the cellular modem can run whatever code with deep privileges as it wishes, I try to keep as little of my business on my phone as I can, with the bulk of my workflow centered around my laptop. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think this automatically makes me immune, but I do think it’s a neat little exercise. Perhaps one could abstract the problem of the modem by getting a separate wireless hotspot.

My friends and family have accepted that they either need to get Signal, XMPP, or Matrix or I will be largely unreachable. The only remaining need for SMS and GSM voice calls stems from work, which is all handled by my work phone that is powered down, or at least disconnected, once I leave for the day. It sucks that this is not the norm, but it looks like I am quite fortunate that my friends, family, and employer all tolerate this workflow.

Take a look at “IoT” SIM cards, they’re a bit expensive and data-only, but might not be subject to the same KYC regulations.

A SIM card only gives you cell phone service. The cellular modem on your phone still connect to towers you’re still tracked by your IMEI, you can still make emergency calls, your phone is still pinging towers, you’re just making things inconvenient for yourself

I did for awhile but it was stock android and I was not doing it for privacy reasons. I just see no reason to pay for something I don’t particularly want. I use a talknow sim currently but mostly use it on wifi.

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I tried, but could never find anything that would work as a VOIP subsititute. So now I have a pixel that does everyrhing except phone calls. Getting close to just giving up and slamming a sim in it because at least it’s a little better than stock android.

Not having a SIM-Card in your phone is like having a tank without a main gun - it drives, but it can’t really do what it’s supposed to do. I don’t think that it’s a good idea. Also, not having a SIM-Card doesn’t make you invisible - only airplane mode really does that. Without some kind of network connectivity, you have an expensive, glorified brick that can make photos, play games and lets you listen to offline music.

Also, I’m wondering what exactly you’re trying to achive. Get a private OS like graphene, don’t install any google services, have anti-tracking protection installed into the browser (or use a safe and sane browser by default) and you’re good.

Not having a SIM doesn’t do anything for you except hiding from your carrier, however, if your threat model involves you being worried by being tracked by your carrier (and by extension, the feds), you’re in really hot water already and you’re probably better off with detaching yourself from the modern world.

I do use my SIM card in a dumbphone, it’s good for mental health too

When I got a new phone a while ago, I put my sim card in the new phone and kept using my old phone on wifi only.