For Americans Going To Europe Or Overseas

[schuster]

A few weeks ago someone posted an interesting account of his trip to Norway on one of the GSM-related Usenet newsgroups. He has bought a prepaid SIM card in the US from Telestial, only to find on arriving in Norway that the carrier demanded by SMS a local address to register. He was unable to make things work and finally ended up going to a company store owned by that carrier and bought a new prepaid package for which he registered in-store. Telestial is still selling this product with no warnings or disclaimers at their web site.

I've seen some comments on rec.travel.europe that in this age of terrorism, many countries are ending the free ride that lets visitors anonymously activate prepaid cellular accounts. Unless you're sure of the situation you'll face upon arrival, one should be careful about paying the huge premium for the convenience of buying a European SIM card while in the US, since it might not work when you arrive.

[KPO'M]

Originally Posted by schuster

I've seen some comments on rec.travel.europe that in this age of terrorism, many countries are ending the free ride that lets visitors anonymously activate prepaid cellular accounts. Unless you're sure of the situation you'll face upon arrival, one should be careful about paying the huge premium for the convenience of buying a European SIM card while in the US, since it might not work when you arrive.

That's too bad. It's yet another thing we seem to be losing to the terrorists (either that, or it's a convenient excuse to force us into ridiculous roaming charges, particularly on data). Anyway, did your friend run into any problems registering in person? New EU roaming rules will come into effect soon, so perhaps the thing to do is get a SIM card from a country where private buying by non-residents is still easy (e.g. the UK) while we can, and keep the cards active.

I'm not sure I understand how restricting sales of prepaid SIMs to residents helps prevent terrorism, though. Why not just require registration with a passport or other secure form of ID that can be traced? That seems to bring most of the benefits of identify verification while not denying the tourist the ability to use a local phone.

[PhotoJim]

Originally Posted by KPO'M

I'm not sure I understand how restricting sales of prepaid SIMs to residents helps prevent terrorism, though. Why not just require registration with a passport or other secure form of ID that can be traced? That seems to bring most of the benefits of identify verification while not denying the tourist the ability to use a local phone.

Isn't that what most of these countries are doing? Switzerland, for example, won't let you get a SIM without providing identification, but a foreigner presenting a passport can get a SIM. It simply has to be done in person. In fact, if you get the package shipped to you while you are in Switzerland, the postal worker will get your passport information from you when he delivers the package with your SIM in it.