Talk:Germany/@comment-50.90.87.200-20170801232622/@comment-24682153-20170801235429

Prepaid SIM registration is currently a mess. They have adopted a new law, but operators are struggeling to comply. Germans normally have an address where they are registered, many foreigners have not. But they are not even mentioned in German passports. Vodafone has declared to register foreigners on hotel (or B&B) addresses and so has O2. The national regulator has rushed to say that the "address" is not essential and a registration must not be denied because of it. But locals have their problems too. WebID is not working properly and there are still many issues.

These things will be sorted out in some time and German government and regulator both have declared that foreigners must have the opportunity to buy SIM cards.

Here are some suggestions about what to do in the meantime:

- with Roam like at home you can take many SIM cards from EU/EEC countries for roaming to Germany at the domestic rates of the issuing country (some restrictions may apply).

- you can look for pre-registered German SIM cards on eBay. This trade is not illegal in Germany as only NEW registrations are checked. But some dealers doing it in larger quantiites now and if these irregularities become too evident, they might be switched off.

- Vodafone and O2 have declared to issue still SIM cards to foreigners. Telekom sometimes wants to see a registered local address. Just go down a high street or a major shopping center in Germany and someone will sell you a SIM giving your hotel address.

- The UK-based ethno providers Lycamobile and Lebara are stepping in with an own new registration system done in their resellers shops. As they are very popular with migrant workers, they jumped into the gap registering anyone regardless of his/her passport.

We can only hope that this situation will improve. Therefore the Germany site will be re-designed shortly: with the major brands giving on location registration only (and through a special link the other, cheaper brands requiring more tricky schemes like WebID).