The mobile security market is expected to reach USD 26.76 billion by 2032. More and more customers are switching from big telcos to security-first carriers—and REALLY Wireless is a prominent player in the market.

The carrier introduces several innovative features to protect user data and ensure comprehensive coverage. This REALLY Wireless review examines those features to outline their real-life performance and help you decide if the service is worth switching to.

What Is REALLY Wireless?

REALLY Wireless is a privacy-focused mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) offering secure cellular services. It was founded in 2022 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas. Its target audience encompasses security-conscious U.S. customers.

The carrier combines traditional MVNO access on T-Mobile’s 4G/5G network with its proprietary decentralized wireless (DeWi) network. The DeWi network uses home-based radio nodes to expand REALLY’s coverage beyond the T-Mobile service area and avoid dead zones.

As a digital-only carrier, REALLY doesn’t have physical stores. This means everything from the signup process and number porting to customer support is done online, which helps users from remote locations get started.

REALLY makes a simple promise to customers—a secure, reliable network with minimal risk of data breaches or unethical privacy practices. While the carrier mostly makes good on this promise through robust security, you should look into it more closely to get to the full picture of what to expect.

REALLY Review: The Great, the Good, and the Bad

To evaluate REALLY’s offering thoroughly, the following sections will focus on the service’s key aspects:

1. 1. Security
2. 1. Privacy
3. 1. Coverage
4. 1. Features
5. 1. Plans and pricing
6. 1. Customer experiences

Security

Due to weak legacy infrastructures and outdated security protocols like SS7 and Diameter, traditional telcos leave plenty of room for SIM swaps, interceptions, and other attacks with potentially severe consequences. To shield users from them, REALLY uses AES-256 and TLS 1.2 encryption for all traffic on the T-Mobile side.

Thanks to encryption, your data is turned into unreadable ciphertext while traveling between servers and being stored in REALLY’s databases. Even if someone stole the encrypted data, they wouldn’t be able to read it—in theory.

The problem here is that TLS 1.2 is 17 years old, so it’s pretty outdated and vulnerable to external attacks. As this protocol is used for encryption in transit, this means there’s still a chance of successful interceptions and data breaches.

REALLY handles security much better through its DeWi network by not storing user data in the first place. It only collects minimal network performance metrics and safeguards this data through several layers, including:

• • AES-256 encryption while data is being transmitted
• • AES-256 encryption for data resting on the servers
• • Application-level encryption

Overall, REALLY’s security is much more solid than what you’d get with a traditional carrier, so switching is a step in the right direction toward secure communication. Still, the encryption the carrier uses is far from unbreakable for a skilled hacker, so your data isn’t completely safe.

Privacy

REALLY’s privacy tagline is “no spying, no tracking, no hacking.” Seeing as the service collects minimal data, it delivers on this ambitious promise better than many competitors.

Signing up doesn’t require the data that many carriers ask for, such as:

• • Name
• • Email
• • Address

Instead, all you need is a phone number that will be used to identify your account. REALLY promises not to sell or otherwise monetize on this data, so you’re safe from Big Telco’s profit-motivated practices.

When you reach out to support, your account is referenced through a random ID, so no actual identifiers are used or stored. The service only stores the phone number and usage data like numbers called and received, which is necessary to ensure CALEA compliance.

While this data is encrypted, users still don’t have full control over it (which would be an ideal scenario when signing up for a secure phone service). That’s because AES-256 encryption falls under so-called server-side encryption, meaning REALLY’s servers create and store encryption keys.

A solution like end-to-end encryption (E2EE) would be a much better alternative here. It ensures that the decryption key is created on your device and never reaches the provider’s servers, so only you can access your data.

Still, REALLY takes users’ privacy more seriously than many alternatives, so the privacy and security features you do get are pretty solid.

Coverage

REALLY piggybacks on T-Mobile’s network, so it has a largely similar service area. The only difference lies in the area covered by the carrier’s DeWi network.

The way it works is straightforward—users can sign up as hosts to use their devices as nodes and share the internet connection with other REALLY users. REALLY offers crypto rewards to incentivize users to expand the mesh network, which should help the coverage expand as more users join.

Unfortunately, REALLY doesn’t seem to be close to their goal of ensuring no dead zones. There aren’t more than a few hundred nodes outside of Austin, most of which are centered around the city.

This means that for now (as of this writing), you should look at REALLY’s coverage as a near equivalent of T-Mobile’s. You can check the carrier’s coverage map to determine the 4G/5G service availability in your area.

Features

REALLY offers an eSIM option without physical SIM cards. While this might bother some users, it’s common among secure mobile services because an eSIM doesn’t carry a risk of card theft or physical SIM swaps.

As for specific features beyond the security and privacy ones, you get:

• • A phone app for account management
• • AI-powered spam call and text blocker
• • Mobile hotspot (20 GB at 5G speed)

REALLY announced that they’d be launching a VPN service as well, which should further enhance your security beyond network-level protection.

There’s no phone support, though you get what REALLY calls “dedicated concierge customer service,” which is available via email and chat. While the response times are typically short, text-based support may not be ideal if you’re dealing with an emergency like a security incident.

Speaking of incidents, REALLY offers a $1 million ID theft insurance policy. In case you suffer any financial losses as a result of identity theft performed through REALLY’s network, the company will cover them up to this amount.

Plans and Pricing

REALLY has a straightforward plan—for $99/month, you get unlimited calls, text, and data (although the speed is throttled after 50 GB). Note that the cost doesn’t include the applicable taxes and fees, so you must pay them separately.

The service also offers unlimited calling to over 175 countries, as well as data for over 200 countries (though roaming charges apply). The international coverage is quite extensive, which makes REALLY a solid option for frequent travelers.

Besides the individual plan, REALLY has separate family and business plans, with pricing available upon request. They offer the same services as the individual plan, so the pricing is mainly determined according to the number of lines you need.

For each Limitless Plan (individual plan) sold, REALLY donates a plan. The company also offers a 10% discount for:

• • Military staff
• • Teachers
• • Healthcare workers
• • First responders

Overall, the pricing is reasonable when you factor in the security and privacy features you get. It’s pretty much the same as what you can expect from most prominent secure services, so the premium you pay for secure communication isn’t extensive.

Customer Experiences

So far, REALLY has established a solid track record—customers are generally happy with the service, and some who have switched from traditional telcos say they don’t regret doing so.

In addition to useful security features, users praise REALLY for solid coverage. Quite a few customers switched from Verizon and claim their reception is much better, even in the more remote areas.

Still, it looks like REALLY has a few issues to iron out. Some users complained about the setup process, saying they couldn’t port the number themselves but needed help from REALLY’s customer support.

Speaking of which, customer care seems to be the most common complaint. As mentioned, REALLY only offers support through email and chat, which bothered some customers who ran into issues with the service.

For example, one user said it took over a week to delete a line due to the delayed customer support chat. Still, the issue was remediated by no other than REALLY’s executive, which demonstrates the company’s commitment to positive user experiences.

The Verdict: Is REALLY Worth It?

If you’re currently on a traditional carrier and want more security and privacy, REALLY can be a decent choice. This is especially true if you also plan on leveraging its DeWi either as a user in a remote area or as a host to share your network and earn rewards.

Thanks to REALLY’s encryption, your data will be concealed from T-Mobile and protected from external attacks—but only to an extent. REALLY’s encryption protocols could surely benefit from an upgrade to give users more peace of mind and provide protection from more elaborate attacks.

On the bright side, you get:

• • The privacy perks of minimal data collection
• • Generous plans and solid coverage
• • Additional useful features like AI spam blocking

For clarity’s sake, here’s a quick summary of REALLY’s pros and cons:

If you want high-level protection through advanced security features, you may want to look for a REALLY alternative with measures like E2EE and robust SIM swap safeguards. To enjoy these comprehensive measures, check out Cape.

Cape: Robust Security, Complete Anonymity

Cape is a security-first carrier that keeps user data private from telcos, third parties, and even internal teams. When you sign up, you go through a simple but effective secure authentication process that replaces passwords with digital signatures.

Your signature is created when you open an account and encrypted by a private key that stays on your device at all times. The key is necessary for notable account changes like SIM ports, so nobody (including Cape’s team) can initiate such changes other than you.

This is one of the many ways Cape secures your data—others include:

• • Minimal data collection: Cape only collects the data necessary for the service to work, and it never tracks or sells such data. Hackers can’t steal data that was never collected in the first place, so you retain control and ownership of your information.
• • Independent mobile core: To conceal and protect user data from big telcos, Cape runs its own mobile network through which all traffic is funneled. The mobile network is cloud-based, which eliminates weak legacy architecture to prevent threats like SS7 and Diameter attacks.
• • Private payment: Cape doesn’t collect or store payment information—it uses Stripe’s tokenization process to mask all private data and ensure complete anonymity at signup.
• • Encrypted voicemail: Cape encrypts all contents and the key metadata of your voicemail with both server-side encryption and private key encryption. As a result, only you can decrypt and access your messages.
• • Enhanced signaling protection: Cape uses its proprietary signaling proxy to monitor traffic and protect from call/SMS interceptions, location tracking, and extraction of unique identifiers.

These features don’t come at the cost of coverage—Cape offers outstanding network connectivity, and each user gets unlimited calls, text, data, and free international roaming (for eligible devices and locations).

You get all of the above for $99 per month. Taxes and fees are included, so you don’t need to worry about hidden costs.

Take Back Control Over Your Data With Cape

You can get started with Cape’s beta anonymously by following these steps:

1. 1. Verify your eligibility on the website
2. 1. Download the Cape mobile app from the Play Store/App Store
3. 1. Choose a new number or port in your existing number
4. 1. Save your unique 24-word passphrase
5. 1. Download and activate your eSIM

The service is available to eSIM-compatible devices, and you can port your existing number effortlessly.

Thanks to Cape’s partnership with Proton, you can secure devices and traffic beyond network protection. Cape subscribers get Proton Unlimited or Proton VPN Plus for only $1 for six months.