Does it show eSIM providers that explicitly do not provide phone numbers? In particular, ones whose eSIM does not list any phone number that the OS can see (many "data-only" plans still have a phone number the OS can see/use).
The closest I found on eSIMDB was a "Hide data only plans (no Voice / SMS)" option, but that's sort of the opposite. I'd like to see "Hide plans that have a phone number" for example.
Mainly I ask because Apple-using friends of mine have told me that it's impossible to remove (e)SIM phone numbers from the iMessage database. There is apparently no setting to use to prevent Apple from making a (e)SIM phone number an option for iMessage, so it's important to have (e)SIMs that provide no phone number at all, to ensure that iMessage can't get confused about which identifiers the user actually wants available.
Why do you need a German phone number? Many countries let anyone have a phone number, with no proof of address or other identifying information. Just use one of those numbers instead. One example service is https://jmp.chat/ but there are many others.
Basically everything is VoIP these days (VoLTE, etc.). Online services sometimes have secret lists of phone numbers they don't like, but "voipness" isn't a silver bullet for determining whether or not a service will like your number or not. The JMP people wrote more about this at https://blog.jmp.chat/b/2022-sms-account-verification
Anyway, this thread is about Signal, and JMP numbers work with Signal, which is why I suggested it.
I'd be interested to hear more if you don't mind posting about which service(s) offer(s) this. If you'd rather tell me privately, email denver@ossguy.com
https://jmp.chat/ supports both MMS and group texting, so it would give you the full Google Voice feature set. I'm not aware of any other service like this that supports group texting - most other services silently ignore group texts, so just be aware of that.
The backend is Bandwidth. Since JMP uses an actual carrier instead of a reseller like Twilio, it is easier to fix issues and get questions answered, as there is one less level of tech support indirection.
It also means JMP's costs are lower (Twilio is extremely expensive) and gets more features (Twilio doesn't do group texting or messages to short codes).
While SIP does support messaging, it is extremely limited: text-only and single recipient (no picture messaging or group texts). So XMPP is a much better fit, as all the texting features people expect can be implemented over XMPP.
Yeah, JMP supports picture messaging and short codes, so works for most SMS-based 2FA. Group texting support will be completed in the next month or two, which would give JMP feature-parity with Google Voice. And you can run your own instance if you don't trust the one at https://jmp.chat/
That's how https://jmp.chat/ works, and you can make your phone number as arbitrarily secure as you want with JMP.
Any port-out requests are handled manually - you are contacted by a human to ensure that you made the request. You can ask them to put a verification code on file for you to confirm when this happens if you're concerned about the security of your XMPP account (which itself could use whatever kind of authentication scheme you like).
In practice it seems to work fine with the banks I've tried. There may be one or two that don't accept numbers whose type is listed as "voip", but they are in the minority.
There is also work being done to update the type field of JMP numbers so they appear as "mobile" instead.
Note this is a pretty recent movement in banking security, several months or so. E.g. Wells Fargo did work previous autumn, not anymore. More can be googled.
Type field is interesting. Not sure this can pass the radars for too long though.
We don't always provide our complete number list at https://jmp.chat/ - as an example, we usually have off-list numbers available in area codes like 416 and 212.
Just message the JMP support number (+1 416 993 8000) or my Jabber ID, denver@ozg.ca , to let us know which area code(s) you're interested in and we can send you a number list.
The closest I found on eSIMDB was a "Hide data only plans (no Voice / SMS)" option, but that's sort of the opposite. I'd like to see "Hide plans that have a phone number" for example.
Mainly I ask because Apple-using friends of mine have told me that it's impossible to remove (e)SIM phone numbers from the iMessage database. There is apparently no setting to use to prevent Apple from making a (e)SIM phone number an option for iMessage, so it's important to have (e)SIMs that provide no phone number at all, to ensure that iMessage can't get confused about which identifiers the user actually wants available.