Of course it’s all shuffled in under the guise of protecting the ordinary man (and woman) on the street from ‘the powers of evil’. Typical political move – drop a hint that there’s a vague threat, but don’t worry the establishment will protect us by removing our liberty and freedom.

Anyhoo, back on topic. The whole point of dishing out prepay SIM cards merrily was to artificially inflate subscriber numbers. Maybe that’s what Vodafone et al are more concerned about?

This is just plain evil from the government. There is simply no moral justification for this.

Nice quote in there from Voda:

“Vodafone does not support mandatory registration for its pre-pay customers and has not made any ‘contingency plans’ to start requiring registration for the purposes of a Government data collection scheme.

PAYG services hold an important role in terms of preventing a digital divide in communications. There is no need for a credit check and if customers do not have a permanent base, or a passport, they are not excluded from using these services.”

UK.gov are still smokescreening the issue, claiming it’s a ‘consultation’. Now where have I heard that before.. (mumbles something about the ERM, European Constitution, etc)

Does this mean the days of operators sending a bunch of free prepay SIMs to anyone who gives them an address is over?

On a slightly related note, I went to open a savings accounts the other day. The list of ID they require is astonishing – two proofs of address and two forms of other ID, including bank statements, payslips, etc. They also want to credit check me. For a savings account?! Give over..