I recently learned about Cape and am trying them out to see how it works. I'd be interested in any other info or opinions people may have.
They are private by nature. They don't collect a bunch of info on you to create an account. They aren't going to sell your data. Its clear it's not anonymous, but I don't need that I just need privacy.
Cool features include:
A rotating IMSI number that changes every 24 hours or so.
What they call Network Lock, which basically pings your phone when your IMSI attaches to the network to verify proximity. If it doesn't match then they deny it. This should prevent SMS interception and sim jacking.
There's also secondary phone numbers included that handle SMS only, so you can use them for services you don't want to give your real number to or as a burner number.
Phone numbers are not identified as VoIP so that (stupid) limitation from some services isn't applicable.
I also like that they seem like a very practical solution. Right now I use JMP for VoIP numbers and buy a data sim separately. I've looked at other services and had issues with them. Cape seems very straight forward and simple.
That being said, they are a very new company. Apparently this has been worked on for years but the service just went live in January. That's my biggest hesitation.
My testing over 2 days has been fine. I haven't seen anything that is negative or a red flag.
Pricing is mildly expensive overall for a single line. No family plans, which is good from a privacy stance and there's a referral discount so basically if you use that to sign up multiple accounts it brings the price down like a family plan would. But I'm a single line so I don't get any of that benefit.
There's some missing features but none that I really care about. They have a clearly marked out roadmap for the year, so I guess over time we get to see if they stick to it.
What do you guys think?
Referral Code: 8DHE3HVV
I have Cape and they have been great so far. I'll leave some info below. Skip the first paragraph if you want to avoid their advertising scheme, but it was the big reason I could afford to switch to them so I thought I might be helpful to others.
They are currently running an early adopter promotion until the end of the year where you get an unlimited plan that is $70 per month for life, and if you use someone else's referral Code it drops you down to $50/month for as long as that person stays on Cape. What's crazy is that it then drops to $30 for another referral, $10 after another, and $0 after that. For as long as those other people are on. I thought that was a pretty cool deal honestly given that I was previously paying $55 a month for T Mobile.
So a quick review from my experiences so far.
Sign up was easy and basically needed no identifying information. I use Cape on Graphene OS through the stock messaging app. It allows me to send videos, images, and so on. There are some issues with group chats still I think, but I haven't really fiddled with that. The coverage and speeds have been solid.
The IMSI rotation is automatic and a great protocol. They have a bunch of other very smart architecture choices. I used to write patents for telecomm companies like Ericsson and Qualcomm and I'm really impressed with their engineering. My friend is an independent security pentester and educator, and their company recently audited Cape. They said they did excellently and had no reservations on recommending them to me. I also watched a lot of interviews about the company and their system. After that, I felt comfortable testing Cape out. My hope was that they would be way more reliable approach than my previous set up (I followed the Bazzell set up with Mint under a pseudonym and VoIP.ms but voip.ms has been really spotty lately and I have young kids so that's no good).
I still have VoIP.ms for my old number, but I use my main Cape cell number for close family and friends who won't get on Signal for whatever reason. They also give you two free burner numbers for texting only, so I use those for 2FA and sign ups if needed. You can only text to those numbers and you currently can't port them out, but I believe they are middle to end encrypted (check me on that one though).
There are many other features and caveats (like they're working on RCS, they have different available features for iPhone users, etc.), but I recommend their interviews with channels like the hated one or techlore or elsewhere. Those helped me a lot.
I'm happy to answer any other questions. It took me a while to decide to try them out because I'm pretty tedious about my privacy set up, but I've honestly been pretty impressed so far and I love the idea of having a mobile core telecomm company adopt some actual privacy architecture in this middle space.
Edit: I just reread my post and realized how much I sound like a shill and how much I repeated what OP said. Sorry, I'm just high in my bed.
Excellent. You're essentially confirming my initial feelings and experiences.
I'm testing group messaging now. I've had some issues with that on my VoIP number so that's a big pain point for me. Waiting to hear back from people on if anything becomes unthreaded (especially from iPhone).