Currently a Verizon cust., but switching to the Brax world of privacy !!
Just ordered a new Brax3 (or pledged??).
Is a pledge the same as purchasing?
Anyway, do I need to join T-Moblie? Do I need a sim card from them?
Will I get a new phone #? form T-Mobile?
Not sure how this really works?
Thanks very much for any assist. Fred
Welcome to the community, Fred!
IndieGoGo use pledge as a terminology instead of a purchase, as they have projects on their site that collect contributions that may not be related to a rendered service/product. In the case of BraX3 project, pledge equals a purchase similar to a pre-order.
T-Mobile is preferred telco provider for the BraX3. You can find more info on telco compatibility in this post: BraX3 Telco Compatibility – United States
You should be able to transfer your current phone number to TMO. Best to consult with them directly.
If you bought a Brax3 for privacy issues, porting your old number over will simply nullify many reasons why the Brax3 is “privacy based”
Your old number is already firmly associated with your identity and, even if you never visit a website or service that tracks you, it provides enough information via WIFI and Low Power Bluetooth tracking to still surveil you efficiently.
If you are serious about wanting to be as private as possible on the phone, it’s going to take some planning, research and changing how you communicate/use your phone. Simply buying the Brax3 and porting over a number is hardly any less private than just buying another Android and porting the number to it.
I suggest you watch the series on videos on YouTube that Rob Braxman has produced on the principals of phone privacy. It’s a lot to take in, but you will discover that once you link your new phone’s IMEI number to a Google account/service, you lose all your advantages.
It’s a complex subject that requires some study.
Start here: https://youtu.be/CWkfd8p0j4w
When asked directly about moving a sim to brax Rob appeared to answer that it would not be an issue. I would have thought the sim was connected to an imei and then would be connected to a new imei bringing all the data with it
Apparently not, however I took pains to get a new SIM card from a new provider when I switched, just to insure support in case of issues.
And because of what rob said I just put my old sim onto the brax3….
Can’t we change the imei in the brax? So if you wanted to get a new sim you could change imei also and potentially break and links?
Others is so much conflicting info on these issues about what is isn’t private and in what way it is/isn’t private. I feel weneed some organised collection of infos with experts from various sectors weighing in so one can determine the level and type of privacy o e can achieve practically.
As I understand it, you CAN change the IMEI in the Brax, but never having had to do that, I can’t help there or answer any questions as to what it would break.
Unfortunately, as of now, you have to bounce around between Brax.me and Braxtech.net to try to glean what you need. It would be nice to have a centralized spot with all the info, but due to so many variables and no one having the time to donate, it will most likely not happen.
I’m also a Verizon customer, and I was very disappointed to find that the Brax3 does not support Verizon.
Mint Mobile uses the T-Mobile network. They are currently running a half price special on their unlimited plan if you prepay 3, 6, or 12 months. That’s what I did, and it works great.
You are correct on this.
Telcos identify devices by their IMEI. They basically can tell what the model is, and who is the owner if the store provides that information, which is not something we do (we are not tracking which device is sent to which customer).
Actually it is a bit more complex than that.
Authorization to the network is done through the Imsi number. That’s how texts or calls can be redirected through the right full owner. This is a number generated from the interaction between the SIM card and the first tower responding to the « hello » of the SIM card.
This number can be intercepted and that’s how we are tapping into phones communications.
Then there is the pairing of the SIM card number and imei number. That’s why you can have on most telco 2 phones having exactly the same Imei number and not being rejected because they have different sim number.
Which is also usually a good way to confuse security services about it because for those who don’t have any general knowledge, they will be a bit lost.
Anyway you can change your imei number on a Qualcomm phone too. There are GitHub repository about it on how to do that if you look it up a little.
And when it comes to change the imei number of your mediatek phone, all the ressources are readily available here on the discourse about how to upgrade manually your phone.
If you do that, don’t forget to use new imei and not imei reported stolen. You have websites for that, where you need to pay.
I suggest you would generate imei on one website. And check it up on another one, a paid website this time which will check the different database accross the world to see if the imei has been stolen or not. Why it is important ? Because telco will block the phone access if they find an occurrence of this imei in the database.
Anyway, changing the imei of your phone is not illegal. Most country will not have a problem even to accept a phone without an imei. to them what is important is the generation of the imsi number.
And since the documentation is readily available, as it should, whether it is to change on Qualcomm or mediatek phone, it should not be a taboo.
This topic was automatically closed 14 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.