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| Many plans to choose from |
In a move that could shake up the wireless industry, prominent right-to-repair YouTuber and privacy advocate Louis Rossmann has teamed up with Nicholas Merrill, a legendary figure in digital privacy circles, to launch a cellular service built from the ground up for anonymity. Their new company, Phreeli, operates as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) but strips away the standard identification requirements, creating a network where users can theoretically sign up without handing over a name, address, or even a traditional payment method.
The core promise of Phreeli is starkly simple: your phone service shouldn’t track you. While it uses the same underlying infrastructure as major carriers, it aims to be the antithesis of their data-hungry business models. In an era where telecommunication giants have been repeatedly fined for selling customer location data, Rossmann and Merrill are betting that a significant number of consumers are ready for an alternative, even if it invites scrutiny.
"Carriers have shown they cannot be trusted with our most sensitive data," Rossmann stated in his announcement video. "This isn't just about ads; it's about creating a system where the very design prevents the abuse we've seen from companies like AT&T and Verizon."
How Phreeli's "Privacy by Design" Works
The technical heart of Phreeli is a proprietary protocol that compartmentalizes user data. The system splits a user’s activity across three isolated services:
- The User Service: Knows the most about the account but is isolated from what the user does.
- The Data Service: Handles the actual network traffic but doesn't know which user it belongs to.
- The Mixer Service: Aggregates and randomizes data from many users before any potential external exposure.
Imagine it as a kitchen with three separate stations. One station knows the chef (user) but never sees the food (data). The second station prepares the food but doesn't know which chef ordered it. The third station mixes all the dishes from all chefs before they leave the kitchen, making it nearly impossible to link a final plate back to an individual. This method, the founders argue, provides functional service while rendering detailed user profiles meaningless.
Plans, Pricing, and Features
Despite its radical privacy stance, Phreeli is entering the market with surprisingly conventional and competitive plans. All options include unlimited talk, text, data, and hotspot tethering, differing primarily in the amount of high-speed data before potential throttling.
You can view the full breakdown of their five simple plans directly on their website at https://www.phreeli.com/plans. The lineup ranges from a flexible $25/month prepaid plan (plus $20 per 5GB high-speed data add-on) to a "Max" plan at $85/month with 65GB of high-speed data. Notably, all tiers include unlimited international calling and texting to over 90 countries—a premium feature often costing extra elsewhere.
True to its ethos, Phreeli accepts cryptocurrency payments and does not require a credit card, name, or email address to sign up, pushing the boundaries of anonymous access to essential services.
The Inevitable Regulatory Challenge
This very anonymity is where Phreeli’s biggest battles will likely be fought. Regulatory frameworks like the FCC’s rules against robocalling and efforts to combat spam often rely on carrier identification of subscribers. Law enforcement agencies also use legal processes to obtain customer data from providers. A network designed to not collect that data will inevitably clash with these systems.
Nicholas Merrill, who famously fought the FBI's National Security Letter in a landmark 2004 case, is no stranger to this fight. "Privacy and security are not mutually exclusive," Merrill contends. "We are building a system that is compliant with the law but engineered to collect only the absolute minimum information necessary, protecting our users from both corporate surveillance and overreach."
A Calculated Gamble for Privacy-Conscious Users
For now, Phreeli presents an enticing yet cautious proposition. Its feature set and pricing are directly competitive, and its privacy technology addresses well-documented abuses in the telecom industry. However, its novelty and the looming regulatory cloud mean early adopters may be hesitant to port their primary phone number immediately.
The success of Phreeli will depend on two factors: whether it can attract enough users to become financially sustainable, and how skillfully it navigates the legal and regulatory gauntlet that is already forming. For consumers who have long felt unease about the trail of data their phone leaves behind, Rossmann and Merrill are offering a powerful—if risky—new choice.