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41 | Keep Your Number Everywhere with Joey Kudish
Palle Bo and Christoph Huebner sit down with software engineer and indie hacker Joey Kudish, the founder of Tether Mobile, to solve a pain every digital nomad knows: how to keep your phone number and receive critical SMS codes without paying crazy roaming fees or juggling SIM cards. From emotional attachment to old numbers to banking one-time passwords that never arrive abroad, they unpack why this problem exists and how Joey is fixing it for nomads first.
You'll hear how Joey went from running a board-game café in Canada to building tools for location-independent life, why SMS infrastructure is such a bureaucratic "snake pit," and what it takes to act as a real carrier of record in multiple countries. If you've ever worried about losing access to your bank, tax authority, or health accounts while traveling, this episode will show you practical options right now and a glimpse of a future where SMS-based authentication might finally die.
Key Take Aways
- Phone numbers are emotional assets and business anchors, which makes switching countries and carriers harder than it needs to be for long-term nomads.
- Many nomads juggle a home-country number on a minimal plan plus local SIMs and eSIMs just to keep receiving SMS verifications.
- Tether Mobile lets you port or buy a number, then forwards incoming SMS to email or chat apps like Telegram, Line, Discord, or Slack so you can drop expensive roaming.
- Traditional carriers often charge daily roaming fees just to access SMS, and many prepaid or VoIP setups fail to receive verification messages reliably abroad.
- Technically and legally, SMS is tightly controlled by carriers and regulators, which is why so few consumer-focused solutions exist and why Joey is rolling out countries carefully.
- At launch, Tether focuses on inbound SMS only, with clear limits and pricing, to avoid spam and compliance issues while solving the core problem really well.
- Supported countries already include the US, Canada, Thailand, several EU states, the UK, and more, with South American numbers on the roadmap.
- Joey expects SMS-based authentication to fade over the next 5–10 years and is fine if that eventually kills his own product, because the goal is better security for everyone.
Relevant Links
- Tether Mobile: https://tethermobile.com/
- Join the Waitlist: https://tethermobile.com/signup
- Joey on X: https://x.com/jkudish
- Joey on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jkudish
- Joey's Website: https://jkudish.com
- Game Tree Café: https://maps.app.goo.gl/A9UFf7JbdeGq5pYR6
- Sunday's Game Night in RealSpace: https://maps.app.goo.gl/3DgsPGADxeQtXYHn7
- Sunday's Game Night at Gemoi Lifestyle Café: https://maps.app.goo.gl/P5o7LtRUx1wDBvEC7
- https://www.satellite.me/
- German solution, SipGate: https://www.sipgate.com/
- Episode with Isac from RealSpace: https://www.nomadsummit.com/episode-31-you-get-a-co-working-space-whats-next/
- Nomad Summit: https://www.nomadsummit.com
- Episode produced by RadioGuru: https://radioguru.co.uk
View all episodes
By Team Nomad SummitPalle Bo and Christoph Huebner sit down with software engineer and indie hacker Joey Kudish, the founder of Tether Mobile, to solve a pain every digital nomad knows: how to keep your phone number and receive critical SMS codes without paying crazy roaming fees or juggling SIM cards. From emotional attachment to old numbers to banking one-time passwords that never arrive abroad, they unpack why this problem exists and how Joey is fixing it for nomads first.
You'll hear how Joey went from running a board-game café in Canada to building tools for location-independent life, why SMS infrastructure is such a bureaucratic "snake pit," and what it takes to act as a real carrier of record in multiple countries. If you've ever worried about losing access to your bank, tax authority, or health accounts while traveling, this episode will show you practical options right now and a glimpse of a future where SMS-based authentication might finally die.
Key Take Aways
- Phone numbers are emotional assets and business anchors, which makes switching countries and carriers harder than it needs to be for long-term nomads.
- Many nomads juggle a home-country number on a minimal plan plus local SIMs and eSIMs just to keep receiving SMS verifications.
- Tether Mobile lets you port or buy a number, then forwards incoming SMS to email or chat apps like Telegram, Line, Discord, or Slack so you can drop expensive roaming.
- Traditional carriers often charge daily roaming fees just to access SMS, and many prepaid or VoIP setups fail to receive verification messages reliably abroad.
- Technically and legally, SMS is tightly controlled by carriers and regulators, which is why so few consumer-focused solutions exist and why Joey is rolling out countries carefully.
- At launch, Tether focuses on inbound SMS only, with clear limits and pricing, to avoid spam and compliance issues while solving the core problem really well.
- Supported countries already include the US, Canada, Thailand, several EU states, the UK, and more, with South American numbers on the roadmap.
- Joey expects SMS-based authentication to fade over the next 5–10 years and is fine if that eventually kills his own product, because the goal is better security for everyone.
Relevant Links
- Tether Mobile: https://tethermobile.com/
- Join the Waitlist: https://tethermobile.com/signup
- Joey on X: https://x.com/jkudish
- Joey on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jkudish
- Joey's Website: https://jkudish.com
- Game Tree Café: https://maps.app.goo.gl/A9UFf7JbdeGq5pYR6
- Sunday's Game Night in RealSpace: https://maps.app.goo.gl/3DgsPGADxeQtXYHn7
- Sunday's Game Night at Gemoi Lifestyle Café: https://maps.app.goo.gl/P5o7LtRUx1wDBvEC7
- https://www.satellite.me/
- German solution, SipGate: https://www.sipgate.com/
- Episode with Isac from RealSpace: https://www.nomadsummit.com/episode-31-you-get-a-co-working-space-whats-next/
- Nomad Summit: https://www.nomadsummit.com
- Episode produced by RadioGuru: https://radioguru.co.uk