Received request from a friend in Minneapolis.
I suggested FairPhone/Murena and they found this Cape.co. The finding a compatible wireless carrier and managing a VPN piece thru them off. They need an easy solution that gives them peace of mind, but they are not techy at all. “Being able to research and pick a carrier, phone and OS was overwhelming.”
This person is not nefarious, but they rightly believe the government is being nefarious in their town and they want to resist while being safe. The marketing from Cape hit the nail, but it’s marketing.
I’m not there to help, so looking for experienced condensed advice on the device.
I should add - this will be a daily driver and I’ve already advised to leave the device home for protests, etc. due to tower tracking. We’re at the next layer.
There is a meshtastic Lemmy community. I think it has limited functionality. Like text only. IIRC it is low frequency, like 900 MHz or something, and is reliable. You have these walkie talkie looking devices, but they don’t do voice that I’m aware of. Also, no issues with needing ham license or any of that. I’d be hard pressed to think there was not a community there that didn’t have nodes set up. I don’t know about security, but it might be under the radar.
There is a meshtastic map, but smaller networks in your community might not register, which is good.
Again, speaking as a radio operator, for this users needs its tough to recommend a radio solution to the non-technical especially when it’s a mesh based hobbyist one the user will be relying on to communicate securely.
Radio also sticks out like sore thumb and it’s important to be able to look normal.