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I've been using this phone number from JMP.chat and I've barely used it for much of anything (Started February 27th, 2024), and somehow its telling me I need $35? I tried out their service plan but it was way too expensive. I only bought it once and took off my credit card after because auto pay kept auto depositing money into my account too frequently. Maybe I'm doing something wrong?
Edit: Found out what happened, it's $6.99/GB for the eSIM, I'm billed 5GB at a time. So $35 total.
Maybe I'm being dumb here, but what is this and why would I use it over Signal or Matrix?
What about it justifies payment?
It gives you a normal mobile number (US & Canada) you can use for calls and sms from within your XMPP apps.
Ah, appreciate the clarification.
If your payment is linked to the number, is it any more private than a PAYG number?
It can be used entirely without a SIM card or even a mobile-phone. All you need is an internet connected device and a compatible XMPP client.
This is pretty useful. Is there anything for UK based folk?
Sadly no, but you can self-host their stack and link it to an SIP voip provider: https://blog.jmp.chat/b/mobile-friendly-sip-gateway
But that will give you only a land-line based phone-number with no SMS support most likely.
Maybe look into Hushed. I know they advertise having UK numbers. It's a similar service but I don't think they have a desktop client
Is it possible to use this number with matrix? That'd be a perfect option for me, I don't really want to sign up to another chat service.
No, but you can use Matrix through an XMPP gateway.
Does this mean you'd be able to send people text messages and call via matrix?
Honestly if I could do that I'd be happy to remove almost all other Comms methods from my devices.
No, but you can do it via XMPP, which is better than Matrix anyway.