Hello Adept!

** On Wednesday 10.12.25 - 23:45, Adept wrote to phigan:

I hate the phone number 2FA because much of the time they
require a non-Google-Voice number. And since I'm in Germany
dealing with American things, where my pre-paid American
number does not work, "security" just locks me out.

To be fair, that's not the only time I've had things that
just don't work because I'm an American in Germany.

[...]

I have you heard of this service?

https://www.sweatfree.co

Maybe that could be useful?

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Re: Re: like a spare tire + more for your phone
By: Adept to Ogg on Sun Dec 14 2025 23:53:31

Hi, Adept.

The issue is the various American things where they want to be able to dial or text an American number, but specifically disallow Google Voice numbers.

In the UK there are hundreds of tin-pot little SIP providers who will sell you "landline" numbers, often from a choice of different area codes for not a lot of money. I used a pay-as-you-go outfit to provide a local number for my business when it was active, I had to put a minimum of 5 GBP credit on at a time and it expired after around 3 months. If you're not taking or making a lot of calls most of your credit would just expire unused.

Do you not have similar setups in the US? Maybe the lobbyists blocked market competition for "safety" or something?

BobW
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Hello Adept!

** On Sunday 14.12.25 - 23:53, Adept wrote to Ogg:

I have you heard of this service?

https://www.sweatfree.co

Maybe that could be useful?

I haven't heard of it, and seems interesting, but being a data eSIM
doesn't really solve any problems for me.

True.. for the most part it is a data channel solution, but it
does open to emergency 911 calls - which I presume are voice.

The issue is the various American things where they want to be able to
dial or text an American number, but specifically disallow Google Voice numbers.

I see many products that offer international phone plans/sims.
Do they not establish the phone-number for your country of
choice? -- ie. USA if you want?


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Re: Re: like a spare tire + more for your phone
By: Adept to Bob Worm on Mon Dec 15 2025 20:04:56

Hi, Adept.

I have a US phone number, with a prepaid card in it, which worked for the first few months after coming to Germany,
but now it only works if I'm in the US.

Are you saying you are permanently roaming a US SIM card / mobile plan or that you already have a SIP service set up?

I'm trying hard not to apply UK logic to this because everything is wildly different but certainly around here they won't let you roam a UK SIM long term on basically any plan. You could totally set up a permanent divert on the mobile number pointing it to a different number like a cheap SIP provider / Google voice. Then again you could just as easily get a cheap provider just to host a geographic number which diverts to a different number.

BobW
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Re: Re: like a spare tire + more for your phone
By: Bob Worm to Adept on Mon Dec 15 2025 08:59 pm

the mobile number pointing it to a different number like a cheap SIP provider / Google voice. Then again you could just as easily get a cheap

I had to look up "SIP" because I wasn't familiar with the term.. I had heard of an "IP phone" before but the term "SIP phone" is new to me.

Nightfox
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Re: Re: like a spare tire + more for your phone
By: Nightfox to Bob Worm on Mon Dec 15 2025 13:24:52

Hi, Nightfox.

I had to look up "SIP" because I wasn't familiar with the term.. I had heard of an "IP phone" before but the term "SIP phone" is new to me.

Apologies - I work in telecoms and, even though it's the data side rather than the voice side, I hear telecoms acronyms all day. Sometimes I forget that not everyone's life is so boring :)

BobW
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Re: Re: like a spare tire + more for your phone
By: Adept to Bob Worm on Tue Dec 16 2025 12:14:05

Hi, Adept.

But always possible there's some way to do it, if you know the right people to contact.

That's always the fun part :) Do you have Lebara over there? They're usually pretty travel-friendly.

BobW
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Hello Adept!

As it is, I think my annoyance level is low enough that I
probably won't be putting the effort into it.

And some forwarding trick like Bob suggests wouldn't help?


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Hello Adept!

** On Tuesday 16.12.25 - 12:14, Adept wrote to Bob Worm:

If it were possible for me to have it do a redirect to my
Google Voice number, that would be delightful, but I don't
think that's an option with my current service. and somehow
I'm guessing that the people sending 2FA to my other number
might not send it if it's a redirect.

I think redirecting (ie. call-forwarding) only works for voice
calls. Forwarding text/sms doesn't work for me even
domestically (Canada, w/luckymobile)

Maybe your 2FA services have an option to send the code via a
voice call?


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Ogg wrote to Adept <=-

Maybe your 2FA services have an option to send the code via a
voice call?

I tried that once, and got an audio version of a CAPTCHA -- a computer
voice reading alphanumerals with a weird oscillating tone beneath it,
akin to wavy lines in a visual CAPTCHA to throw off bots.

It was weirdly creepy.



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