Worlds largest fine 5.2 Billion for unregistered SIM cards

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nigelj

856 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1431859 20-Nov-2015 17:19

ubergeeknz:
nigelj: Optus was even easier, just insert SIM and call a number with it, give them an(y) address and it was good to go.

Little surprised by this. When I was in Melbourne '05-'07 you couldn't get a SIM without '100 points of ID' for which even a passport on its own was not enough

Shocked me too after dealing with Virgin, but I distinctly remember just having to call a number - I might've had to give them a passport number, but they certainly never saw it, but the SIM was sold without ID from Optus, and then I activated it over the phone.

old3eyes

9119 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#1431881 20-Nov-2015 17:36

nigelj:
ubergeeknz:
nigelj: Optus was even easier, just insert SIM and call a number with it, give them an(y) address and it was good to go.

Little surprised by this. When I was in Melbourne '05-'07 you couldn't get a SIM without '100 points of ID' for which even a passport on its own was not enough

Shocked me too after dealing with Virgin, but I distinctly remember just having to call a number - I might've had to give them a passport number, but they certainly never saw it, but the SIM was sold without ID from Optus, and then I activated it over the phone.

Still not much better. In July I still had to show my passport to get an Optus SIM..

Regards,

Old3eyes

tardtasticx

3075 posts

Uber Geek

#1433359 23-Nov-2015 15:37

nigelj:
tardtasticx:
Yabanize: It's not a requirement to register in NZ either

Probably will be soon I imagine. Australia has it, was an interesting experience trying to register 2 prepaid data SIMs when I went there earlier this year. No local passport or drivers licence made that fun.

Have they tightened it down?

Vodafone AU at BNE (~'12) were happy with NZ Passport + NZ Credit Card as verification for completing the documentation. Even back in '08 Virgin just took a look at NZ Passport and put down their address - I hadn't yet decided between two apartments - saying "oh we do this for backpackers all the time". Optus was even easier, just insert SIM and call a number with it, give them an(y) address and it was good to go.

Possibly, it was a lot of information. But my passport was back at our hotel and CBF going back to get it. But I think because it was overseas it still would have been the same deal as my drivers licence. Had to give DL, and 2 credit cards with my name on it, as well as show proof we were staying at Sofitel just up the road from the store so they could register that as our address.

I see the reasoning behind it, and I'm kind of surprised it's not hear yet tbh. I see a fuss being kicked up once it does!

nigelj

856 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1433434 23-Nov-2015 17:35

tardtasticx:
nigelj:
tardtasticx:
Yabanize: It's not a requirement to register in NZ either

Probably will be soon I imagine. Australia has it, was an interesting experience trying to register 2 prepaid data SIMs when I went there earlier this year. No local passport or drivers licence made that fun.

Have they tightened it down?

Vodafone AU at BNE (~'12) were happy with NZ Passport + NZ Credit Card as verification for completing the documentation. Even back in '08 Virgin just took a look at NZ Passport and put down their address - I hadn't yet decided between two apartments - saying "oh we do this for backpackers all the time". Optus was even easier, just insert SIM and call a number with it, give them an(y) address and it was good to go.

Possibly, it was a lot of information. But my passport was back at our hotel and CBF going back to get it. But I think because it was overseas it still would have been the same deal as my drivers licence. Had to give DL, and 2 credit cards with my name on it, as well as show proof we were staying at Sofitel just up the road from the store so they could register that as our address.

I see the reasoning behind it, and I'm kind of surprised it's not hear yet tbh. I see a fuss being kicked up once it does!

Drivers Licenses aren't seen as always "issued by a national authority" (well, in Australia even for example they are issued by the State) so they can't even be used as proof of age (I remember a German tourist getting denied service at a pub since he didn't have his passport on him, only his German D/L), his friend got served because he had his passport.

I think the gist is basically, a Passport is issued by governments, they have to comply with Interpol/etc rules, ergo they are trusted universally. The issuing of a Driver License may be entrusted through many levels of legislation to a dodgy County Clerk of some strange far away country and who knows if they are corrupt or not. (Of course, the argument is, why not say licenses from Countries X, Y, Z are explicitly trusted, I guess the answer is, do you expect salespeople to memorize a whole long list of what is okay/what isn't?).

Writing this I got curious on one aspect, and stumbled upon http://www.gsma.com/publicpolicy/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/GSMA_White-Paper_Mandatory-Registration-of-Prepaid-SIM-Users_32pgWEBv3.pdf which is a quite interesting read on the pros & cons of mandatory registration. Mexico's example in particular (law repealed after 3 years) is interesting, you would've thought it would help put a slow down to the drug based crimes for instance but it seems not. Also makes me wonder if this is partially why prepaid roaming options are so limited, if Spark/Vodafone/etc don't know where to send a bill/track down a customer to, are they allowed to let their SIM card roam onto some countries networks...

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