To have e2ee, you'd have to have compatible software on both ends. But if you've got that, why bother with the private pipe to Verizon at all?
Privacy
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
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Well, you could do WiFi calls and text with a VPN, use Signal, or Signal with a VPN?
First question: there are already free apps (signal) that will provide E2EE through the Verizon network.
Second question: yes, it wouldn’t matter if the encryption was setup right.
Third: carrier locked phones can install the free software, see answer to question one
Do you mean E2EE for voice calls and SMS? Otherwise why not use a trusted or personal VPN to solve this problem? I wouldn't bother with trying to secure voice calls provided by a carrier as the recipient would also need those counter measures in which case why not use ab E2EE voice app like signal.
Personally I think there are possible federal wiretapping laws that might have something to say about a telecom that is offering an E2EE secure phone line to someone who is not on duty as a police officer (cop), federal agent (glowie), or other authorized federal, state or local employee (bureaucrat, with data that has legitimate need to be protected).
That's not even considering the entitled political hand-wringing about terrorists, spies, drug dealers, pedophiles and other so called "EVIL" people who "should not have access to such a powerful tool" because "it's our law enforcement's right to catch them in the act." Unfortunately it's a nuanced problem and we can't wave away all of that hand-wringing, even if we think most of it is dramatic and performative. They do have some points.
But...even if we were to suppose for a moment that all of the above issues are not a problem... because something likely happened to wake people up to the need for privacy...we would be facing an entirely new set of technical challenges to hurdle over.
As our current cell networks are structured; we would need to deploy cell phones with phone numbers that do not typically allow routing of outbound unencrypted calls...instead all phone calls would need to be routed over cellular data (AKA LTE or 5G). These calls could definitely be nominally routed by an existing application such as Signal and would require that remote recipients also install the Signal app to receive encrypted calls.
Essentially you'd have a phone which is a Data+SMS only line with a phone number for ease of access. You wouldn't be able to make outbound unencrypted calls or send SMS messages except to emergency services.
Somehow I think that the NSA has a hand in the pot.
T-Mobile is not private and neither is any other carrier