Timi

Hello,

I was considering whether should I call each and every Mobile Phone provider here in USA or rather create a post on your forum and decided for the second option as you see. Why? Due to two reasons. First: because most likely on your forum are many travelers who were in the same situation in the past. Second: to not need to contact multiple Mobile phone companies just because every company representative can answer for company where he/she works only. Here I can probably expect more ''wider'' solution including all USA mobile phone providers.

So let me explain my problem:

I am searching for online USA phone number to receive incoming SMS messages. However, there is one major requirement to be met and looking for such solution: NO physical sim card! I don't want to use sim card. It happened many times, while being in foreign country that when I plugged sim card to my phone, it had problems finding the connection to be established with Phone Service Providers. Not all sim cards from different USA phone providers can be used in foreign countries. Sometimes when i am abroad, on phone screen occurs error message such as ''Error recognizing the card'' or whatever else showing the USA sim card doesn't work in particular country. Searching the store, while being abroad, who could have 001 sim cards is like playing casino. So I decided to stop this problem for good.

Instead of, I am searching for online only based solution: I want to get online USA mobile phone number for receiving SMS messages. The phone number that can be used on computer, where SMS messages GUARANTEED ( !!! ) arrive instantly, obviously under obvious condition: having computer with working internet connection.

Where could I get or buy (so either free or charge or for my payment) such online phone number? I don't want physical sim anymore.

One more thing to be said: You surely wonder why don't I use well known service Phone.com which is most likely, besides CallCentric (warning: callcentric doesn't offer sms messages), not just USA but worldwide number one online phone solutions provider. The reason why I don't use them is pretty much simple: I want to register phone number on my own name, obviously real name and willing to provide the identification document if required. This is because when someone calls me for any personal information, he/she/they might require that my phone number is publically verified so that my name is on the phone number as phone number owner (phone account holder name = name to whom phone number belong). I want to be publically recognized as owner of phone number. Unfortunately Phone.com cannot help with this. They don't register their phone numbers to the individual's name, instead I would have to contact phone books (online and offline) providers where registrations of phone number may be complex and time consuming. I am sure the process of name registration would be much more easier and faster if using one of major USA phone providers, e.g. att, verizon, sprint, tmobile,... whoever. So the reason why I am preferring phone carrier solution rather than Phone.com is simplicity of registering my name as phone number owner. My phone number must be then verified by anyone or anything (note: automated applications may be used for phone number vs. name verification also!) wanting to check that I am really the owner of it. Unfortunately I also contacted for this credit bureau like TransUnion and they confirmed in order to be publically found/verified as owner of phone number, it is NOT enough if I just add it to my credit report. I must register my name on it.

It is VERY VERY important that my phone number will be able to be verified according to my name.

Your help where/how could I get USA online phone number would be highly appreciated. I travel a lot, using SMS messages all the time and want to do this on computer so I could finally say ''goodbye'' to worry whether or not sim card will be able to be used in foreign country. Thanks!

Cat Man Do

Hi, welcome to Flyertalk.

As far as I know, the same applies to all mobile phone providers in the US - they do not 'register' the number's owner with directories.

The closest we had to that was when providers of landlines would publish their own telephone directories on paper.

You might consider a google voice number, which can send messges to your email, google apps on your phone, or forwarding to another number. GV numbers are at least tied to your Google account, and can be made publically searchable.

The US has no nationwide requirement for phone companies to verify your identity, and a phone number is not an ID verification, so I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish.

Timi

What can potential buyer or buyer of mobile phone number without physical sim card ( ! ) do so the ownership of phone number can be verified?

Landline phone numbers cannot receive SMS. Only mobile can.

Google voice number has never been and never will be able to be verified by nation institution such as hospital, bank, credit bureau, IRS, social security office, lenders, etc.

You asked me what I am trying to accomplish: In brief: I want that offical institution will be able to verify the ownership (my name!) of phone number but this phone number must not ( ! ) be based on physical sim card, so i can use phone number abroad too for SMS receiving. Note that telling me how can i make sure that sim card will be able to be used abroad without any sim errors has nothing to do with my question. Phone number to receive SMS must be without sim card so online based to be used on computer and must be able ot be verified.

gfunkdave

Google Voice would be my first choice, too. You could also check out Ringcentral or voip.ms.

Need

Google voice. It is free and works great. You can even get SMS on your email and reply SMS on email.

Timi

Google Voice cannot offer feature of registering particular phone number on name so whichever national institution (bank, hospital, IRS, credit bur., etc) could verify the ownership before releasing personal information via incoming SMS. Obviously there may be endless of ways how could they verify phone number whether or not it belongs to particular name (my). One of them could be automated software application, either web or desktop based.

freecia

Voip.ms offers CNAM for outgoing caller id set to a name & number and sms as beta service
https://wiki.voip.ms/article/Caller_ID
https://wiki.voip.ms/article/Extra_S...on_and_Updates
https://wiki.voip.ms/article/SMS
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r244...-outgoing-CNAM

Some business phone systems like RingCentral also offer sms, voip, and outbound caller id.

I know you said no sim, but Postpaid Verizon offers an interesting Verizon Messages (Messages+) solution where they forward text messages to Messages app including desktop apps https://www.verizonwireless.com/supp...messages-faqs/ https://www.verizonwireless.com/supp...sages/#windows I presume it is done Verizon server(s) side so there's some synching of delivered, read, and archived messages and inbound carrier agnostic. If you use a phone which has Verizon wifi calling, you'd also be able to call such institutions via wifi (which can be tricky with a local sim/voip to US 800 number).

T-Mobile postpaid also started offering DIGITS recently which is similar and has included international sms receipt and low bandwidth roaming in over 140 countries
https://www.androidcentral.com/what-...y-do-i-want-it
https://www.t-mobile.com/offers/t-mobile-digits
https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-33472

AT&T's NumberSync doesn't seem to have a desktop app/web portal?
https://www.att.com/shop/wireless/fe...goLh9Wlcpq8dLw

ETA: While I can't generalize about this, I observe from trip reports that people have A) work provided mobile phone & account and/or b) carry more than one phone or get a dual sim phone.

deniah

i have never seen an institute use phone number to verify identity (outside of voluntary authentication e.g. 2.F.A.-triggered). given privacy principals i dont even know how this would work... you expect verizon to maintain a list of trusted institution that it is permitted to expose a customers information to?

anyway, i use google voice # successfully for 2.F.A. with banks and such

Timi

I never said something like this would be needed. If it was, I would use:

https://www.spoofcard.com/

But this is not what I need.This is only to set custom phone number and/or name as a caller id so receiver of call sees on his/her/their phone screen what I define in application. I am NOT looking for this. I was asking for possibility of being able to receive ( ! ) sms text message on virtual/online USA phone number while traveling. So there is no need to use physical sim card and worry about its connection to the local satellite that may occur in error on phone screen as it did many times in the past. However I contacted credit bur. like Transunion if phone number would be verified (parameter: ownership) if I added it to my credit report but unfortunately the answer was negative. This means my name has to be registered on phone number ownership in order to be verified. So I am looking for online/vitual phone number for sms receiving while being abroad which will be able to be verified with my name. I contacted whitepages.com (online phone book) customer support but no reply from them.

AT&T offers ''Digits'' plan where phone number can be used online on computer but unfortunately in order to activate it, the physical sim card must be in possession at least once so its not a solution for me.

I won't be able to register the phone number, thats the problem.



Not sure what you mean but if you are asking whether or not they have online discussion board (forum) then yes they do and i used it but no reply.


No, I am just looking for a way to register ownership of phone number, at least for a limited time. This is the reason why i cannot use Phone.com services - worldwide's number one online phone service provider. Perhaps I could but don't have any knowledge about registering the phone number, I would get from them. on my name.

freecia

I believe voip.ms actually has the ability to register phone numbers in CNAM database which is what identifies number ownership? Then the institution messaging you needs to do a CNAM lookup with the number (which costs a bit of their money) to validate the phone number matches your name. Voip.ms also offer sms via voip (thus also voip mobile or desktop app) as a beta service.

What do other expats, deployed military, or frequent long term travelers do to validate identity with credit bureaus or government entities remotely? Or people without a cell/house phone at all (like the homeless)?

Same. I haven't personally encountered the same use case you're trying to solve with sms validation, much less virtual sms. Most of the time US banks and etc's second authentication step is verbal confirmation of prior address, social security, and other information which is not widely known.

TransUnion offers address changes by mail with additional info https://www.transunion.com/customer-...redit-disputes . Perhaps they also allow phone number validation via post and then you just need to provide a number like Phone.com or Google Voice's offerings, as it doesn't need to be registered in CNAM database? It is possible to send international registered letters from many countries with good postal system to USPS Post Box.

That's not to say your situation isn't an issue, just that perhaps there is another way to authenticate with this specific entity (US credit union?). It can't just be you who had a presence in US, currently does not, but needs to get in touch with banks, credit bureaus, IRS, and etc.

KRSW

Google Voice is what you need.

CallerID in the USA still isn't fully built out. NO ONE our company works with (banks, government, 3-letter gov't agencies, etc.) depends upon CallerID, especially CNAME for accurate data. We still receive calls on our office PBX from the legacy carriers (AT&T landline, Verizon landline) which lack proper CallerID and just have the circuit # for CNAME.

For that matter, our PBX & trunks will send whatever CallerID and trunk info I type into the PBX. If I want to put "Domino's Pizza <+1 305 000 0000>", it'll gladly take it and my carrier will gladly pass it on.

chrisrozon

There's no such thing as "register ownership of a phone" in the US. Your use case doesn't exist.

Silver Fox

You haven't got billions in a Nigerian bank that you need to ship out have you?

DMSFCA

This all sounds really sketchy.

der_saeufer

What these guys/girls said.

Phones in the US are not registered with any government agency like they are in some other countries. Landlines and postpaid cellphones, obviously, are registered with the carrier for its own billing purposes, but prepaid lines don't necessarily have any identifying information on the account at all.

If a company wants to verify that a number you provide is yours, they call or text it. Google Voice works fine for 99% of those use cases.