That very much depends on the country, many require ID.

The ID presented at time of purchase does not have to be the ID of the actual user of the card. Your local drunkard will be happy to get $10 to buy a SIM card for you. Or you could visit eBay (or local equivalent) and get a valid SIM card without leaving your house.

> The ID presented at time of purchase does not have to be the ID of the actual user of the card

In some EU member states this might be fine, but definitely not all.

> Your local drunkard will be happy to get $10 to buy a SIM card for you.

Buying a SIM card was always the easy bit. Getting it activated may not be, it depends on which country you're in.

https://www.telekom.de/prepaid-aktivierung/en/start

"For the Selfie-Ident you identify yourself with your identity card, passport or residence permit. (Selfie-Ident is currently possible worldwide with the German ID card, residence permit and passport. Alternatively, you can use Video-Ident and identify yourself in a video call with an employee.)

Important: Temporary identification documents are not supported due to internal check. You need a tablet or smartphone with a camera and an internet connection."

Surely others may use your phone?

If you're happy to purchase a SIM card, register it in your name, and hand it to someone else for them to use, go right ahead.

Q: Who's paying the bills for that SIM?

I was referring to this part

> > The ID presented at time of purchase does not have to be the ID of the actual user of the card

>In some EU member states this might be fine, but definitely not all

It seems hard if not impossible to prevent or stop?

> It seems hard if not impossible to prevent or stop?

Thought experiement: you can buy and register a car, and then lend it to someone else to use.

That's certainly "hard if not impossible to prevent or stop" and might seem fine ... right until the point when it isn't fine any more.

At which point the police will come to knock on your door (first).

> Q: Who's paying the bills for that SIM?

You can anonymously buy top-up vouchers in supermarkets for pay-as-you-go SIMs.

The suggestion above wasn’t a statement of practicality but rather of EU motivations. Maybe you can also find a drunkard to fork Android for you.

>While it is technically feasible, it is not a good idea to try and find a technical solution to a people/organisation problem.

In my country, giving a SIM card to another person who does something illegal, is a crime. No doubt EU might soon have the same law - they are pretty good at copying.

As a result, sites where I could rent a number for verification, now don't offer local numbers anymore.

Germany requires ID for all SIMs (for "normal" people). You can buy activated SIMs in every bigger city if you know what to look for though.

You can use any country's SIM card in any other country, regardless of its registration status.

… if you have roaming coverage.

And even in that case, doing this for a long period of time violates most roaming policies

Even with fair usage policy violations (like long term roaming) the prices are still quite reasonable: 1.30 EUR/GiB (+VAT); from next year 1.10 EUR/GiB (+VAT).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_roaming_regulat...

The only thing that happens is your data becomes a lot more expensive, the card still continues to work as normal. I've not lived in Poland for over 15 years now, and I still have a polish SIM card that I use almost daily - the only thing that I've lost due to roaming long term is cheap data packs, I can still call and text as normal from my monthly allowance.

Maybe in the countries that you are familiar with that is the case.

In some places your plan will be cancelled for roaming beyond a certain number of days or quantity of usage. Telecom laws and polices vary widely.

There's eu(maybe even EEA?) wide free roaming legally mandated since I think 2017 or so? But it's not a permanent solution, your second paragraph still holds true.

I know of some UK SIMs that do not roam.

As far as I know it is only EU. Both UK and Switzerland have some operators that roam and some that do not. fwiw, fastweb in Italy provides roaming in both and has a very generous fair usage policy.

That's because we are no longer in the EU. Before Brexit they were legally mandated to allow free roaming in the EU. Now they are back to charging whatever outrageous prices they wish.