I Ditched My Phone's SIM Card for a 5G Hotspot (youtube.com)
Big telecom companies require tons of personal info just to use their cell service, but they have been proven to sell your data, and further, they are not capable of protecting it, proven by large data breaches of their companies. Not only did T-mobile give/get hacked your data if you used their service, but even if you were a ‘prosective customer’ ie they bought your data from someone, they gave the data of those people away/got hacked also. SINs, addresses, full legal names, DOBs, government ID data. AT&T gave up/got hacked for records of call and messaging data for 109m customers.
He's using the Calyx 5G hotspot. They do data minimalization. They don't want your data so don't collect it, so no one can get it from them. $750 for first year and $500 for subsequent years, unlimited data, cheaper than unlimited data for any major US carrier (which is $45 to $65). They require your address to send the device to you, but there are more private ways the vlogger describes. He gave Calyx a name (not legal name), email, mailing address and money order. No actual vulnerable personal data.
Calyx's hotspot runs on Tmobile so they can see the network and towers, but you can minimize the info tying that info to your user. He uses an always on encrypted VPN. So the cell tower can see the hotspot, but cannot see the phone connected to the hotspot.
The device is as big as two phones stacked, and its battery runs 5-12 hours. (5 hours with 5 devices connected.)
No native phone number for calls or messages.