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Background
Many of the big email service providers now require a mobile phone number in order to create an account (a land line isn't acceptable). My understanding is that mobile phone access is used to activate the account (possibly via SMS messaging of a PIN?).
I live in a cell tower hole and get no signal in the vicinity of my house. So I haven't bothered with a cell phone. I'm also in need of a new email provider for the first time in many years, so it's the first time I'm running into the cell phone hurdle, and I'm a bit hazy on the requirements.
My read is that the requirement is a mobile phone number with the ability to receive SMS messages.
Question
Is it possible to emulate this on a computer? For example, there are VOIP services that will provide a phone number, and apps for exchanging SMS messages. Can I cobble something together that would appear to the email provider to be a cell phone, which would be adequate to receive a text message to authenticate a new account?
Or is a separate device part of the security design, so nothing you do on the computer would work? I know that the email account creation includes identifying whether the phone number is a land line or mobile number; I'm not familiar with whether VOIP phone numbers are a third identifiable class.
If it makes a difference, I mainly use Linux, but can still access Windows 7.
fixer1234
Posted 2019-03-06T05:37:14.943
Reputation: 24 254
What country are you looking for service in? Not sure if you are aware that you generally only need the phone for SMS for initial validation, so you can probably do this from a prepay/burner phone away from your computer. (Or, if its an option in your country, buy a sim card and use it in someone elses phone for setup - just check that, after validation, there are methods of validation other then cellphone in case it gets lost) VOIP phone numbers are not inherently identifiable as such, but the issues are more likely to be around SMS signalling... – davidgo – 2019-03-06T06:11:10.980
I don't know any VOIP providers who provide SMS, but its probable they exist somewhere. – davidgo – 2019-03-06T06:11:35.473
@davidgo, I'm in the US. The requirement is only for account creation. I own a cell phone, but there's no signal. There is generally a time limit for entering the PIN, so it wouldn't be practical to get to where I can receive a message and then get back to the computer to enter it (unless it works by replying on the cell phone). re: phone numbers, they distinguish between land line (no SMS) and cellular numbers. Any idea which category VOIP numbers fall in? – fixer1234 – 2019-03-06T06:31:40.790
Why not do the whole initial setup on your cellphone, then go back and add your computer? – davidgo – 2019-03-06T06:41:51.280
I have a VOIP number in the (New Zealand) Cellphone number range, and in the New Zealand landline range. I'd speculate that the landline range is more common, but not universal. – davidgo – 2019-03-06T06:42:54.430
@davidgo, my cell phone is minimally capable (SMS but no email or web access). If the mechanism is to just send a return SMS message, that would work. But if it requires accessing their web site and entering a PIN there, the phone can't do it. It sounds like the only way to know anything for sure is to try it. :-) – fixer1234 – 2019-03-06T06:51:19.820
1Many VOIP services are capable of SMS. For those which are capable, a regular cell phone can exchange SMS with the VOIP phone. Computer to SMS, however is more complex as the computer has to use a gateway into the cell provider's system to send the SMS to a cell phone. Most VOIP providers have no such gateway (API) which eliminates that option for the OP. I do wish I remembered which one it was, but I was able to "validate" for some email provider using SMS on my VOIP (MagicJack) phone. It might have been Gmail, but I don't think so. – user686699 – 2019-03-06T07:45:44.673