T-Mobile wants to give your phone number superpowers | Hacker News Reader

T-Mobile wants to give your phone number superpowers

washingtonpost.com

35 pointsnatejackdev19 comments

Wait, you mean I'll be able to use my phone number just like my username on popular free services like Facebook Messenger, Skype, or Google Talk? Those have been free for a decade or more, and this will only cost me $10 per month per account? Sign me up!

Now if only they would sell all my communication data behind my back, or at least give it away to the NSA, this would be the PERFECT deal. Do you think there's a way to make sure my money goes to fight net neutrality?

I think you're missing that $10 a month is for each additional phone number you want to use. Your regular phone number works with this for no additional charge.

This is going to be great - what are Yahoo!, Citibank, and everyone else who has declared war on VOIP by refusing to send SMS or voice auths to them going to do now that the third largest carrier in the US is all VOIP? Its a rhetorical question, they are going to drop the "that number doesn't look right" crap.

I remember being denied loans and credit cards because I only had a mobile phone (no hard line), but today no bank would dare do that because it would exclude the majority of the population. Now they're going to swallow their pride and allow VOIP numbers.

Now if we can just get everyone on board with preventing the banks from disabling paste on form fields!

Citibank in the UK sends SMS authentication

> Google was among the earliest to experiment with this idea. Google Voice Released in 2009

Pretty sure the earliest was Grand Central in 2005-2006: https://techcrunch.com/2006/09/25/grandcentral-could-make-ph...

Google bought them and relaunched, but it wasn't an "experiment" so much as a rebranding / UI refresh.

From the Digits privacy policy:

>4.3. Data Security. The Service provides an unencrypted wireless connection to the Internet. Your transmission of data over this connection could impact the security of your data. By participating, you agree you are responsible for the security of your Device(s) and of any data in the transmissions you make or receive. You also understand the risks of unencrypted access to the Internet. You understand that you are in control of whether to take certain security precautions, including encrypting data transmissions, backing up any data and protecting your system with virus protection, a firewall, and robust user authentication.

unless I'm reading this wrong, it seems this is an unecrypted service [?]

(pop-up modal here: https://gui.t-mobile.com/gui/login?client_id=WRCMAV_STG&scop... )

My iPhone already has this functionality. And I don't have to pay $10 per month for it either.

Probably a poor copy of iMessages, but without the encryption.

As I mentioned in another comment, the $10 is for each additional phone number (if you want to get extra phone numbers). Your regular number works for free.

No, this works like Google Voice. In other words, better than iMessage. This works even when you're out of the country and don't have service on your phone.

Instead I wish we could kill phone numbers... who remembers a phone number other than their own these days? Email addresses are much easier to remember.

Around here everyone has LINE, and I make more Skype and LINE voice calls in a month than I do phone network ones. The phone network is basically reserved for calling business for me.

One thing to keep in mind is that email is not synchronous, so you can get an email and just not reply for a while. Of course you can ignore phone calls, but it's not the same as ignoring an email. Additionally, phone numbers are useful if you don't have access to data, for some reason, or need to contact someone in an emergency. As a counter to your point about remembering phone numbers, I don't remember most, but I remember very important ones (like my father's).

I would recommend knowing one phone number of a person you trust. Type it in when you call them and you will remember it in an emergency. If you get into a spot where you don't have your own phone and get to make one call, you will be very happy to know a number of someone who will help.

Is this an ad? It sure looks like an ad.

T-Mobile is tied for Most Reviled Company in my life, right next to Time Warner Cable ("now Spectrum"), and my local infuriating privatized electric power monopoly. Most Americans have one of these, so they'll know what I'm talking about. Every time I see John Legere's face, my fist involuntarily swipes for a hit.

Mobil phone numbers are like what social security numbers were, only global and without any pretense of legal protection on other use. The majority of people will start worrying about this when you start being able to open credit by providing your phone number instead of social security number. Then identity theft will start occurring by the phone number vector. Be wary of 2FA via phone.

Do I need a new number and are these new numbers portable?

Pre-Paid plans not included.

This is not a super power.

I think this is great and it's a long time coming. I have a bunch of google voice numbers that I use for various applications, but it's such a terrible service that I welcome any alternative.

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