My review of Tello’s awesome $5/month service for a US phone number.
- It really works. Can send and receive phone calls and (SMS) text messages from anywhere in the world.
- You can pay more to add a data plan.
- I read that US Mobile has the same plan on some online forums, but when I checked it was not that cheap of a price.
There are many reason to have another number.
- For different purposes (e.g. personal vs business, private vs public).
- Because your rideshare account got banned and you need a new US number (like me).
Tips if you have problems activating your ESIM:
- turn off all other cellular lines
- connect to WIFI
- activate your ESIM now
- if it’s forever stuck on activating (I had this problem because I was out of the country), go into your phone settings and enable “WIFI Calling” and “Data Roaming”
- reddit discussion