"Thailand has asked telecommunications agencies and wireless carriers to register all prepaid wireless phone users to prevent militants from using the devices to trigger bombs. All wireless carriers had agreed in principle to register SIM card purchasers' information, allowing the government to trace them. Since January 2004, more than 640 people have been killed, mostly from bomb blasts. (Source: AFP via CTIA newswire)"
I am not familiar with the process of obtaining a SIM card in Europe but in the UK, I remember having to register for the SIM card (not the phone). However, I have borrowed phones from my friends previously and charged them up with phone cards in different parts of Europe, without having to identify myself. I wonder whether this measure would actually do anything more than simply track the law-obiding citizens some more.
Registration usually only hurts the honest people. But in this case, it's the carriers who are doing the registering. Since there are fewer carriers than customers, it makes it much easier to execute targetted enforcement.
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