The Invisible Phone: Ditch PSTN Forever – No IMEI, No IMSI, No KYC, Total Stealth Calling

Today, I'm going to teach you about a

false stealth solution to your phone.

First, be aware that the phone network,

which is called the public switched

telephone network, or PSTN,

is the most surveilled communication

system in the world. In the US alone,

each call is tracked via multiple

government surveillance methods. There's

the Prism program that records all

metadata and sends it to the infamous

Utah data center of the No Such Agency.

There's the Calia law that allows any

law enforcement officer to wiretap your

conversation just from some internet

interface without even requiring

physical presence. Then there's a cell

carrier tracking that includes cell

tower location triangulation and

identification of your phone by IMSI,

IMEI, and matches that with your phone

call. And if you're on a production

phone, Google is aware of every click.

To add to its invasiveness, Google will

now query the carrier network for your

ID, name, and address. So, there's a

direct link between your phone, the cell

network, and your presence on the PSTN.

And of course, matched to your Google ID

together with the IMEI and IMSI.

What if I told you that you can get

around all this?

I'm not suggesting that you can evade

the government if you're being actively

surveilled, but if you're just a

privacy-seeking individual that just

wants [music] to disappear quietly from

the grid,

I have a tested answer.

It's even possible for you to have a

normal phone with two methods of

calling. One that looks like a legit

normie phone and one with stealth and

use the method that suits you at the

moment. Total flexibility.

This works, folks. I tested it and

surprisingly, it does the job well. And

partly, it's a misunderstood solution

because people didn't know how to set it

up properly.

So, I'll teach you how to make it work

correctly.

Stay right there.

Big picture of the solution.

The solution is actually very simple,

but I will be honest with you. Without

the proper setup, it is buggy and

unreliable. For this to work, it has to

be as steady as a normal phone.

So, I tested this and I'm documenting

for you what I did. And when set up

correctly, it works great. If this

hasn't worked for you before, it is

likely because of some incorrect setup

or maybe it's something unique with the

phone being used. The pieces of the

solution involve using a de-googled

phone, a voice over IP service on the

phone, a voice over IP app, and a

data-only SIM. In this instance, I

tested with all products that came from

my company.

You don't have to use a product from me,

but here I have full control of all the

pieces, so I know this will work. You

can certainly find alternate services

and devices to what I offer, though I

think this is a brilliant solution in

combination, since everything works and

all are vetted and are priced very

fairly.

All the services I will discuss feature

no KYC or no ID, so you're guaranteed

privacy from the outset. There will be

no instance of some Google Android

retrieving your name and address direct

from the carrier.

De-googled phone.

The only really private phone type that

is commonly available is the de-googled

phone, which is just a general

classification of a phone running

Android Open Source Project or AOSP.

The most common variety of these phones

are Google Pixels running some AOSB

variant like eOS,

CalyxOS, LineageOS, or GrapheneOS.

For my testing, my own phone is a Brex

3, which is running eOS currently.

What makes these types of phones safer

is that first, they don't have any

connection to Google. Standard phones

send identifiers to HQ when you make an

internet connection, like your Google ID

and then your IMSI and IMEI.

So, they are automatically identified.

In addition, Google is able to track all

your app use, so it would be a simple

matter to track that you used a voice

over IP app, for example. A de-Google

phone is invisible to Big Tech.

The important feature that you need to

make this solution work is to enable

notifications via a Google spoofer

feature called microG.

I will explain all that later.

Notifications are key to making this

seamless, otherwise you'll use up too

much battery by staying awake

constantly.

Voice over IP service.

The service I'm using for testing is the

Brex virtual phone service. This is a

VoIP solution that is only available

with US and Canada phone numbers,

though they can be used anywhere in the

world. The key to this service, as I

mentioned, is that it is a no KYC

service. So, your identity is not tied

to the service, nor is it shared with

the carrier in any way.

But, the unique thing about this

solution is that because it is not

cellular based, meaning you're not using

a cell tower for phone communications,

you're actually not sending an

identifier with your call.

Over cell, every call is accompanied by

the IMSI, or international mobile

subscriber identity, and the IMEI, or

the international mobile equipment

identifier.

Using voice over IP, the call to the

phone network is actually initiated at

the carrier server. That's where the

bridge is to the PSTN, and you just

connect to that server using a network

transport protocol called SIP. S I P.

Because there's no radio connection, the

cell identifiers, meaning IMSI and IMEI,

do not exist.

By the way, you don't need to understand

what the SIP acronym means. It's just

that to the recipient of your call, the

source device of the call is unknown

other than the phone number.

Data only eSIM.

This is the part that I've been missing

for a while, and that is where to get an

affordable no KYC data only eSIM

service. We announced this product

recently, and I have partnered with a

carrier to come up with Brex SIM

Unlisted. The specific product line

applicable here is the privacy travel

eSIM service, which is available in a

dozen countries.

It is data only and can be used at a

very reasonable price. I will try to

give you estimates of cost later, so you

can see that this is all doable without

breaking the bank.

What is interesting about an eSIM data

only service is that your phone

connection to the cell network is via

internet only, so there is no assigned

phone number.

Although an eSIM still has an IMSI and

IMEI, when there's no cell or SMS

traffic, no one can associate a specific

activity to the device, since the

metadata comes from the phone number,

and that doesn't exist on a data only

SIM with internet only use.

A phone number, by the way, is what

identifies you on the PSTN. The absence

of that limits the addressability of the

base bad modem or the cell radio on your

phone.

By the design of the PSTN, the metadata

is tied to calling or texting activity,

not internet. In case you didn't know,

nowadays, most of the internet traffic

is already encrypted. This is why your

browser requires you to type HTTPS

on any website you access. That turns on

the encryption.

So, your traffic already enters the cell

carrier with an encryption layer.

But, in the case of the Brax and

service, this is even better because

though the carrier I'm using is an MVNO

of T-Mobile, even T-Mobile doesn't see

the traffic because from your phone, it

is routed to the Brax and carrier via

VPN.

You will see that specified in the APN

information or access point name

settings where the internet routing is

entered.

And then it exits back to T-Mobile, but

with the source path removed, meaning

the originating device.

So, when using a data only SIM that has

no KYC like in this example, the

internet traffic from the phone is very

protected from the typical mass

surveillance.

Using all these together.

The basic approach is to use all these

pieces together. You install a voice

over IP app on the phone to connect to

the Brax virtual phone service, and in

this case, I'm using the app Voip MS

softphone.

Then as I said, the phone itself is a

Brax 3, which is a de-googled phone.

Then it has a Brax SIM travel eSIM,

which is data only.

This is a pretty hardened solution from

the PSTN side of things. There's no

direct phone number to the phone. The

internet side is encrypted as I said.

The voice over IP service trunks your

traffic and calls are initiated from the

carrier side rather than on device.

This works very well when making

outgoing calls and there is really no

complexity with that. Where people have

a problem is to get the phone to ring

when you are mobile.

Setting up the voice over IP app.

I'm going to show you in detail how to

set up the Brac's virtual phone on the

VoIP MS app. So, there's no mystery in

this.

First, assuming you already provision a

phone number on Brac's virtual phone,

your account will look like this.

The most critical value is your SIP

username.

Next, you need to set up these three

additional important fields. Your SIP

password, your SIP server, and then the

transport method. These default to a

value, but you can change them.

The password cannot have special

characters, but I recommend a long

password with four random words.

The server is critical. Whatever it is

needs to match what you enter on your

voice over IP app. Otherwise, select

whatever is closest to you.

The other critical value is that it must

match the country of the phone number

you provisioned. If the country does not

match, you must choose an international

server.

Any of them.

The transport defaults to UDP, which is

the best in performance, but you can

select TLS if you want to increase

security. However, the encryption has a

performance penalty and may affect the

quality of the voice, so test it first.

Also, make sure you have no forwarding

number for the call. If you forward the

number, your phone will not ring as it

resends the call as a fresh call to the

other number.

But you can forward your voicemail to

email or forward SMS.

Those don't impact the ringing.

So, given the four values which you have

set up on the Brax virtual phone setup,

it is a simple matter of putting the

same exact information on the Voip MS

softphone app.

Reliable ringing.

Now, what happens once you enter this

account on the Voip MS app and enable

the account, it will then state that it

is registered. This indicates that the

voice over IP app has a constant

internet connection with the server, and

this is the first indication that things

are set up right.

If it is not showing as registered, then

go back to what I said and see what the

error is, like a typo, non-matching

server, non-matching transport, or an

international server wasn't used when

needed.

It will be some obvious difference.

There are other things to consider,

though. Only one device can be

registered at a time. So, if you have a

hardware SIP phone also active, that

will likely take priority since only one

device can ring.

I'll give you alternate approaches on

that later. In any case, at this moment,

if you call the voice over IP number,

the phone will ring and it will be

flawless.

However, most people leave it like this,

and then it doesn't ring when they put

the phone in their pocket.

The way registration works is that the

app must be constantly connected to the

server, and then if a call arrives, it

is able to immediately trigger the

ringer.

But for those on a mobile phone, you

will immediately understand that apps go

to sleep to preserve battery. And having

an app that never shuts down and causes

the internet connection to be sustained

24/7 will inevitably kill the battery in

a very short amount of time.

There are several settings to override

this, which will make this work well.

First, you must enable notifications on

the app. For notifications to work on a

de-Googled phone, you must go to microG,

which is in settings on a GrapheneOS

phone, and make sure that cloud

messaging is enabled. You also enable

Google device registration, but you

never create a Google account, so leave

that part alone.

What this does is allow microG to spoof

your identity on Google so that you're

able to receive notifications from

Google, but without identifying your

phone.

By the way, there is no microG on

GrapheneOS, and you are forced to log in

to Google with your real Google ID on

the sandbox, so I don't recommend that

method. microG works flawlessly for this

use.

In addition to notifications being

enabled for the VoIP MS app, you go to

app battery usage and permissions and

enable allow background usage.

What it does is that if the phone

receives a notification and the app is

not running, the notification will

actually launch the app in the

background, and then this will allow it

to trigger the ringing.

Using notifications, it is then

unnecessary for the phone to remain

connected continuously.

microG itself is always running even in

the background. This is the main app

that must remain connected to the

internet at all times. But since only

this app must be running, then there's

not as much of a drain on the battery.

By the way, there's an option in

permissions called manage app if unused.

This could turn off the app and wreak

havoc on you. So, make sure you disable

this feature.

Now, let's test this out. Just to

demonstrate, I will force stop the VoIP

MS app. Then, we will call the number.

As you can see, it works fine as long as

notifications are enabled.

Alternate strategies.

There's never a one-size-fits-all when

it comes to a privacy solution. Some

people need a regular phone with access

to regular calls, like a business line,

but the privacy comes from even just

partitioning your data.

If, for example, business calls go into

a regular public PSTN line with a

regular SIM card, and VoIP calls use

only the data, then you are providing a

segregation of traffic since your

private calls don't announce you on the

PSTN.

You can even add a VPN to the setup so

that the traffic is double encrypted.

Another variant approach is for the

voice over IP line to be used for

outgoing only. So, in this use case, you

can have all messages be forwarded as

voicemail. Then, you call back using the

VoIP SIP app.

Or, you can forward the actual call

directly to your main line, and then the

caller will not know your actual number

as the forwarding is only known to the

voice over IP carrier. This, of course,

is the simplest and most reliable option

since you don't have to worry about

notifications or having the SIP app

always work in the background.

But, this, of course, requires that you

have another SIM card on the phone with

a regular line and data. So, this is

still subject to PSTN mass surveillance.

The other combination is that you have a

SIP hardware phone at your home, and

then when you don't answer, it triggers

voicemail, and then you get the

voicemail via email.

Then you can fire up your SIP app and

call them back when you're not home.

Fortunately, in all these cases, you're

still getting text messages either via

the Voip.ms cell phone app or via

Brax.me my SMS.

This allows you to use a voice over IP

number for two-factor authentication,

which is the ultimate in privacy. The

only caveat is that some companies, like

Google and Facebook, deliberately

disallow a voice over IP number for 2FA.

But surprisingly, a large number of

companies allow 2FA using voice over IP,

including banks. So, it isn't as

restrictive as you might imagine.

Remember that SMS itself is another one

of these highly surveilled

communications methods, and if tied to

the PSTN and a cell phone, it identifies

you and your particular device.

Routing it via voice over IP eliminates

that risk, especially for two-factor

authentication, which is frequently used

now as a way of forcing you to identify

yourself.

Bonus concept.

Here's a bonus idea. Let's say you have

two people with the same identical setup

with Brax virtual phone and data only

eSIM.

When these two people talk to each other

instead of using the normal phone

number, you just dial each other using

the extension number provided by Brax

virtual phone.

You can even use this even if the other

person is on a different voice over IP

service using the external extension.

So, Voip to Voip, you can always dial by

extension.

This is such a privacy bonus because A,

extension calling is never logged as

there's no billing associated with it.

It's free. B, because you're talking

voice over IP server to voice over IP

server, you're not even connected to the

PSTN at all. So, there is no PSTN

metadata.

Thus, it is a completely invisible call.

Yet, for all intents and purposes, it

looks like a typical call experience.

And there's no location data or identity

attached to the event.

Final thoughts.

Let me give you a rundown on the cost of

the solution.

The Brex 3 phone is $338.

The Brex virtual phone subscription

starts at $6.25

per month. The Brex SIM travel eSIM

starts at $7.50 per month. The Voip MS

cellphone app is free. So, for low

volume minimalist use, we're talking

about an inexpensive solution, cheaper

than any equivalent regular phone plan

even.

Having a reliable way to have voice over

IP as a substitute for a normal

cellphone service has been a point of

great resistance to this solution for a

long time.

But, having tested this with these

particular combinations of products and

services, I can vouch for its

reliability. It just works as long as

you use notifications.

We are planning on creating a special

phone that has no phone calling

capability. This limitation will be

built in at the hardware level, so the

phone can only do cell data. This will

be the exact scenario I just described

here with a voice over IP app and data

only SIM. We are planning to make this a

minimalist phone, but it will be the

most private design since you cannot

make a mistake with the calling.

In fact, even the cell modem will be a

separate device from the motherboard so

it can be switched off for 100%

security. The cell baseband modem is one

of the biggest trackers in phone use.

This will be an incredibly private

device when it comes out.

Let me know what you think about all

this in the comments below.

Folks, if you're interested in the Brax

3 phone which was mentioned in this

video, you can find that at braxtech.net

and it is available for sale now on its

second batch.

And watch out for the upcoming Brax Open

Slate Android Linux tablet which can be

pre-ordered now and slated for fall

release.

We also have other products and services

on the Brax Me platform. On our store

there, we have Brax virtual phone,

Brax SIM unlisted,

Brax Mail,

and Bytes VPN. Thank you to those who

support us on Patreon, YouTube

memberships, and Locals. See you next

time.