Obtaining a prepaid card from abroad

[SierraHotel]

Originally Posted by Effendi

Receiving an SMS is always free with ANY European sim-card.

That's what I thought, too, but unfortunately I couldn't find any official information that would support this claim. Curiously, is this regulated by law?

Originally Posted by Effendi

A copy of your passport should be enough. Otherwise go to Como and buy it, it's not a long journey, you live in Switzerland, not Australia!

Yeah, I thought about that, too. But still, it's a 5-6 hour trip both ways which seems a little overkill only for obtaining a SIM card...

On a side note: Today I talked to a Vodafone Italia representative asking how it's possible for me to obtain a Smart Passport SIM while being abroad and without any previous Italian registration. They said it's simply not possible since I would either need to provide a previous Italian number or go see a sales point in person... Which kinda begs the question: How is a reseller like Europasim.com able to ship Vodafone Smart Passport SIMs world wide by only requesting a copy of the ID / passport??