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Comment by Vahkesh | Hacker News Reader

Agreed, I'm trying to figure out where this site is getting their pricing data.

I assume its something like numbeo. Thing is with this kind of data there is always a local and a tourist price. In many countries (especially Europe) you can not always buy a prepaid SIM card with a foreign passport (without extra hoops at least) or you need a real residence address.

So these prices often reflect the few options that are (visibly) available for tourists.

I've never had an issue with a foreign passport buying a SIM. You usually need a local address but you can just use your hotels.

I usually did not either. However Netherlands and Germany have been an exception. In the Netherlands every mobile provider shoo me out of their shop refering to yallo or libera. I had an apartment and was staying 2 months, so this wasn't the issue. And Germany was essentially the same except I only tried with 3 or so providers.

Most tourists still pick one of the shitty providers available at the airport or train station and go with that. Some of them provide a faster verification do you can walk out having internet, in Austria if you buy internet at a supermarket (it's uncomplicated there) it can take a few hours to verify.

Or Italy, if you arrive in Venedig you find ads for internet packages everywhere. I actually needed to go to the mainland to buy a a normal SIM. As no one on the island acknowledged the cheaper packages available.

My point is, it's complicated

Source: I've spent months (if not years) with my laptop In Europe and Asia and internet always was the #1 priority. I also do not know if things are better today

As another data point. A few years a go I bought a sim card in Germany (mediamarkt I think). They asked for the Anmeldung document (proof of residence, needed also to open a bank account) and photocopied it.

For a short-term stay, why not just use Lebera, or a similar operator?

They have short-term or no-contract options at low prices, and often have a website in English.

It's not low price compared to local alternatives. I was work travelling so internet was a must, I always tried getting the best rate as part of my welcome to a new country ritual :)

Also what is short? In Austria I get a new prepaid for every few days I stay (because uncomplicated and cheap). In the Netherlands libera was the only real option even thought I was there for 2 months.

I just remembered the actual issue in Netherland, Germany as well as Switzerland. Normal Prepaid is generally expensive, what you want is a always cancelable contract to get the fairest (most local) price for a short time. And here is where it gets more complicated based on residence and stuff

Edit:// I spent over 200€ on prepaid internet that 2 months I was in the Netherlands. A always cancel contract would have costed I think about 20$ a month for unlimited (and way faster) internet

> I assume its something like numbeo. Thing is with this kind of data there is always a local and a tourist price. In many countries (especially Europe) you can not always buy a prepaid SIM card with a foreign passport (without extra hoops at least) or you need a real residence address.

In the EU there are still some countries where you can buy SIM cards without ID so you can just order one of those online and then use roaming, which does not have additional charges within the EU.

Which ones? AFAIK that ID thing was an EU law?

Also roaming is a good point. 5 years ago when I was active travelling this was no option yet as only contracts had proper roaming. Cheap roaming in the EU is basically new, and some ex. Switzerland is mostly still excluded

https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/ICTprices/defa...

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