so, i went to post office to buy a prepaid SIM card for tele2
i was totally surprised that they wanted to take my name, address, passport...as if i was signing a contract
as they didn't know which paper to fill in, i gave up for the moment
then i called tele2 support to ask is this really necessary - they say yes, we need your data for registration...and the most stupid part is that when you buy the card, you cannot use it until the next day (or maybe even two), since they need to process the registration
in croatia, you go to kiosk, give the money, take the card, put the SIM in the phone, call the number to register it and hasta la vista baby
now, the question is, are all prepaid providers this way, with registration? is this sort of 'anti-criminal' thing?
I would say its most definitely an anti-criminal, anti terrorist defence.
They can check your credentials are correct so hence the day or two delay and also keep a record of who you are incase your phone is used as some part of a crime.
Yes it applies to all companies. This is supposed to stop terrorists and criminals using mobile phones. Though what stops them stealing them I don't know - and it's cheaper to steal one...
I just brought a PAYG handset and card with swisscom Monday morning... The lady took my name and address and sent me on my way... No passport or proof of address requires and no experience with Tele2 yet...
My Sunrise prepay receipt/"contract" specified that I was to be responsible for the use of my phone in the event of any criminal activity that it might be used for. I did get to use it minutes after leaving the shop though.
Aside: charged 50 francs for the sim card with 10 fr credit though - highly peeved when I saw sunrise selling it for about 20 online with more credit.
Ireland has proposed a similar registration of prepay phones. It's getting very little support from what I hear. Only in Switzerland can they carry off such things.
I have taken a swisscom prepaid card without any problem. All they asked was a passport or permit and asked me to pay 20 CHF for the new card which already has a talk time of 20 chf.I did not have to fill any forms or sign anything. They just gave me filled in form with my registration details. This card can be loaded immediately and used. I have got these cards for friends and relatives who are visiting and need a local no. to stay in touch. I thought it was pretty convenient although I believe sunrise is cheaper.
As an ex Swisscom mobile employee I can confirm this is in compliance with anti-terrorism legislation after it transpired that its prepaid sims were used as part of planning purposes in New York.
Of course different providers implement the rules slightly differently, possibly also depending on the shop vs. online.
If the retail outlet can't make it as painless as possible for you go elsewhere, or online.
It was a quite stupid idea to begin with, because there are plenty of countries where you can get prepaid SIM cards without registration. In addition, according to an article I read a while ago, it backfired because it's much more expensive to tap phones with foreign SIM cards.
While we're on the subject, don't miss out on this amusing story .
More up to date, a couple of months ago I bought a new Nokia from my local Post Office, and the lady took great delight in asking for my id and carefully filling out the applicable form.
Now, coming with a Swisscom prepaid SIM, the phone is locked for 2 years. No problem, as I can use my old phone if I want to buy another SIM for use abroad.
But I already have a Swisscom Easy prepaid SIM, so I put that into the new phone, and it works fine. So here's the tip. If you already have a Swisscom prepaid SIM, you can buy a phone locked into the Swisscom prepaid service, collar for the subsidy on the phone, and carry on using your existing card.
To forestall any comments about other suppliers being cheaper, I ought to say that Swisscom offers by far the best reception where I live. Before selecting a mobile service, it pays to ask around to see which ones have a good or bad signal in your area.
Oh, to get back on topic, I bought my original SIM card before the id regulations came into force, so it's unregistered Having said that, enough people have the number that it's not really anonymous.
Well I've been here for two years now and have bought 10 pay as you go sim cards (3x mbudget, 2x coop 2 x yallo , 2x swisscom and 1 xsunrise cards and can confirm that in each case passport and address was required, and 2 days to activate the numbers.
As they always point out, the subcriber is responsible for the card, so if any criminal activity was to arrise from one of these someone would come knocking at our door.
i am always surprised at how stupid the 'security measures' can be...take for example my situation today in the post office...the lady had a piece of paper, she asked me where i live (didn't ask for any ID confirming that this is actually MY address), took my passport, wrote down the data...BUT, is she trained to check whether my passport is original or not? if you are up to some serious criminal plan, there would really be no problem to avoid all this 'security measures'
For once it has nothing to do with money laundering. Like JVC pointed out, this was a reaction to terrorism. And organised crime demonstrates that the regulation can be circumvented easily enough: The police of the city of Zurich has debunked 17'000 wrongly registered phones in 2004-2006, mostly related to drug crime ( Link ).
In all these 17'000 cases the first owners of the phone number are liable by law but not one was legally prosecuted.
Sunrise is atrocious with this sort of thing... although I am sure others do much the same
we wanted to get our son a cell for his birthday, so we looked up the Sunrise site, and after much debate, settled on a particular Nokia for chf 119. Called to ask, and they said you can buy the same model in the store...
Come birthday and I go to the store to pick up the surprise... and a surprise it sure was. the same phone was chf 149. and since i could not really wait, i had to grudgingly pay the higher price. i called their cust service later to complain, and they said 'of course it is cheaper to buy the same phone online... we have to pay rent for the store, you know..."