Came up with a variation on a phone setup I had been doing off and on over the last few months. This time with the sim card in a budget android phone not signed into anything, just using voice calls, sms, and mobile hotspot. Basically using it like a feature phone that just happens to also serve data to whatever additional device I want to also carry with me that does all the other stuff. Hoping this gets me around the network compatibility delima I run into occasionally with these weird phones I like to play with.