Great piece, very useful
An alternative approach (different tradeoffs) is to rent a long term (real) sim online, and use this for kyc facing interactions
This way the number isn't tied to your geolo...
Thank you. This is a solid approach worth discussing.
The remote SIM model using services like silent.link is legitimate and used by people serious about separating identity from connectivity.
But there's a practical problem I've run into firsthand: silent.link numbers and similar services are increasingly blacklisted by financial institutions and major platforms for SMS 2FA—for the same reason alias emails are blocked.
They've built detection for these ranges. So if your threat model includes any interaction with banking or Big Tech services, you're back to needing a real carrier SIM somewhere in your stack.
The hotspot-only second device is clever segmentation. Separating the device that touches the cellular network from the device that holds your data is sound thinking—and it’s very much in line with the layered model I outlined.
But that hotspot device is still a radio on a network—it's trackable. You've isolated the exposure, not eliminated it.
As covered in the original post—a SIM-less device is not the same thing as a radio-silent device. If the cellular radio is active, the device can still interact with nearby towers. The radio doesn't care about the SIM.
A thoughtful alternative—just understand the gaps before relying on it.
The remote SIM model using services like silent.link is legitimate and used by people serious about separating identity from connectivity.
But there's a practical problem I've run into firsthand: silent.link numbers and similar services are increasingly blacklisted by financial institutions and major platforms for SMS 2FA—for the same reason alias emails are blocked.
They've built detection for these ranges. So if your threat model includes any interaction with banking or Big Tech services, you're back to needing a real carrier SIM somewhere in your stack.
The hotspot-only second device is clever segmentation. Separating the device that touches the cellular network from the device that holds your data is sound thinking—and it’s very much in line with the layered model I outlined.
But that hotspot device is still a radio on a network—it's trackable. You've isolated the exposure, not eliminated it.
As covered in the original post—a SIM-less device is not the same thing as a radio-silent device. If the cellular radio is active, the device can still interact with nearby towers. The radio doesn't care about the SIM.
A thoughtful alternative—just understand the gaps before relying on it.
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