In rural Vermont, electrical engineer Patrick Schlott built 3 “FreePhones” after noticing poor cell service. His company RandTel converts plain old telephone service into digital signals and broadcasts them online, allowing anyone to make a call.
Inspired by PhilTel (Philly) and Futel (Portland), these community phones don’t surveil users. Some even use VPNs.
Futel explains: “Denial of telephony services has long been a tactic against undesirable populations… we will help establish a new era of communication.”
At TBOT & Above Phone, we align with this vision. Like FreePhones, our internet numbers don’t require personal info, aren’t tied to towers, and let you run multiple numbers on one device. Best of all, this internet phone number is built right into the Above Suite—a complete solution for private, flexible communication.
In rural Vermont, electrical engineer Patrick Schlott built 3 “FreePhones” after noticing poor cell service. His company RandTel converts plain old telephone service into digital signals and broadcasts them online, allowing anyone to make a call.
Inspired by PhilTel (Philly) and Futel (Portland), these community phones don’t surveil users. Some even use VPNs.
Futel explains: “Denial of telephony services has long been a tactic against undesirable populations… we will help establish a new era of communication.”
At TBOT & Above Phone, we align with this vision. Like FreePhones, our internet numbers don’t require personal info, aren’t tied to towers, and let you run multiple numbers on one device. Best of all, this internet phone number is built right into the Above Suite—a complete solution for private, flexible communication.
He adds: "Telegram has become my primary news source." But the Ukraine Crisis Media Center's Tsekhanovska points out that communications are often down in zones most affected by the war, making this sort of cross-referencing a luxury many cannot afford. Telegram has become more interventionist over time, and has steadily increased its efforts to shut down these accounts. But this has also meant that the company has also engaged with lawmakers more generally, although it maintains that it doesn’t do so willingly. For instance, in September 2021, Telegram reportedly blocked a chat bot in support of (Putin critic) Alexei Navalny during Russia’s most recent parliamentary elections. Pavel Durov was quoted at the time saying that the company was obliged to follow a “legitimate” law of the land. He added that as Apple and Google both follow the law, to violate it would give both platforms a reason to boot the messenger from its stores. Continuing its crackdown against entities allegedly involved in a front-running scam using messaging app Telegram, Sebi on Thursday carried out search and seizure operations at the premises of eight entities in multiple locations across the country. Two days after Russia invaded Ukraine, an account on the Telegram messaging platform posing as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged his armed forces to surrender.
from br
