Sim card regulation

[Cornfed]

Has this come up before? An issue for travelers is whether there is you can easily use a mobile phone in the various countries you are living in. I've never heard of the phones themselves being restricted but the sim cards often are.

I presume this is the case in Korea and China, but I don't know because I was lent a phone by my employer in both cases. When I was in Cambodia you either had to be a Cambodian citizen or have some official-type job and go apply at the phone company's head office. Since most expats didn't fit this criteria the general idea was to pay a motodop or someone to get the phone in his name. When you did this they could be pretty insistent that you not onsell the sim. In Australia you need recognized photo ID, which for most people would be their passport. In New Zealand the sale of sim cards is unregulated, apparently because the pigs have succeeded in tracing criminals using mobile phones through undisclosed means.

Maybe we should have a list of countries and associated regulations somewhere.

[Jester]

Good OP, important topic, thanks.

Here in Mexico they ask for ID at the TelCel office when buying a cellphone. But if you buy a cheap old-school cellphone from an Oxxo convenience store, you can do so without ID, then register it online with TelCel via a phone call. Since it's a phone call, no ID is shown. You may need some drivers license number, not sure if they run it against a list of valid US ID or not.

MoviStar is a cheaper carrier but little user base in Ensenada. It's possible that since they have less of the NWO-style Carlos-Slim oligarch-predator-pricing schemes, they may (?) also be looser on ID etc.

In any case though one must be aware that the name you give will be seen by some people you call. So if you want a nickname or whatever, use it from the start.