Spain cuts off 3m pre-pay mobiles

[mobaholic]

Mass failure to register phones

Spanish mobile operators last night cut off an estimated three to four million pre-pay mobile phones whose owners had not followed government instructions to register their devices.

The mandatory scheme - in which all pre-pay mobiles have to be assigned to an ID document - was a reaction to the terrorist attacks of 11 March 2004, where the perpetrators used such phones to activate bombs on several trains in Madrid, killing 191.

As of this morning, anyone who didn't toe the line will, when they try to make a call, be met with a recorded message telling them their number's up.  Incoming calls are blocked too, although the phones will still be able to access the 112 emergency number.

Given the scale of the non-compliance, the government has agreed with Telefónica, Vodafone and Orange to give punters another six months to cough their details.  The operators will reconnect the phone and reimburse any lost credit when owners do the right thing.

According to El País, the pre-pay total on all the disconnected phones could be around €25m.  Those who don't take the second chance to register their phone within six months, either by contacting their operator direct or in a mobile phone retail outlet, will definitively lose both the number and any outstanding credit.

See:-   TheRegister.

[Mikael]

This just shows the stupidity of governments. There is nothing to stop terrorists buying a PAYG SIM in another country that does not require registration and then roaming into Spain. I'm sure a bomb maker will not care about the extra cost of a romaing call to trigger a bomb. However lots of other citezens who just want to remain private have to register or loose their number. The UK government, unsurprisingly, is talking about doing the same thing, but hopefully there will be change of government before that happens.

[petkow]

What is even more alarming, is that there has been suprisingly little publicity about this mass stunt here in Spain! No TV adverts, no billboards etc.. I think text messages were sent out, but I know plenty of elderly people who haven't got a clue of what to do with those! People can hardly be blamed when they try and make calls this morning and find their phones are not working! There just hasn't been enough "public information" notification over the last few months! Other than a few utterances on the news, and plenty of chatter on forums, in my experience this just has not been talked about enough!

Worse still, plenty of people here (especially immigrants whose status here is "grey"), find that they simply cannot register a SIM in their name anyhow! The application usually requires you to have a NIE or NIF number (like a tax code) which many foreigners just do not have! Even many EU citizens do not have one of these, as the process usually involves you getting in a long queue and taking a day-off work! I think however that some (maybe most) networks will let you register just by using a passport number, but this this still excludes many illegal immigrants here from having a prepaid SIM!

This just shows the stupidity of governments. There is nothing to stop terrorists buying a PAYG SIM in another country that does not require registration and then roaming into Spain. I'm sure a bomb maker will not care about the extra cost of a romaing call to trigger a bomb.

This is of course very true! The problem is that the most dangerous terrorist cells in this country actually have strong foreign connections or are mainly based in other countries (e.g. ETA with France and Al Qaeda with Morroco and other nearby North African countries).