The rules that break your phone
Three kinds of rule cost travellers a handset, a call or a line. 10 countries are on this list. For 10 we have read the regulator’s own document; for 0 we have not — those carry the language of a real consequence in search results and nothing more. The list says which is which, because that difference is the whole point.
Device blocking
The handset stops working unless its IMEI is registered.
🇳🇵 Nepal Guide published · NTA MDMS notice ›🇹🇷 Turkey Guide published · BTK / MCKS ›🇮🇩 Indonesia Guide published · beacukai.go.id ›🇵🇰 Pakistan Guide published · pta.gov.pk ›🇪🇬 Egypt Guide published · tra.gov.eg ›
🇧🇩 Bangladesh Sourced: neir.btrc.gov.bd (BTRC's own NEIR portal)
VoIP restrictions
Calls over WhatsApp, FaceTime or Telegram are blocked at network level.
Line limits & in-person rules
One line per operator, passport at the counter, no remote purchase.
Read the law, and it does not break your phone
46 more countries where we read the regulator’s own document. Most of these rules decide what you are asked for, who the duty falls on, or whether the rule reaches you at all. The last group is the honest exception: read, and still open.
Identity checked before a local line
Buy a local SIM there and you will be asked for a document. A roaming profile is not a local line.
🇯🇵 Japan Act No. 31 of 2005: identity is verified before a voice line is sold. ›🇨🇳 China Identity verification is required before a local line is issued. ›🇻🇳 Vietnam Identity is checked before a local line is issued. A roaming profile is not a local line — the instrument says so in its own definitions. ›🇸🇬 Singapore Identity is checked before a local line is issued. A roaming profile is not a local line — the instrument says so in its own definitions. ›🇲🇦 Morocco Article 23 makes the carrier verify who you are — and keeps it on the hook for checks its resellers and shop agents run. ›🇲🇾 Malaysia Identity is checked before a local line is issued. A roaming profile is not a local line — the instrument says so in its own definitions. ›🇹🇼 Taiwan NCC rules make a carrier verify two original documents before a number is assigned — and a visitor has no residence certificate to show. ›🇭🇰 Hong Kong Cap. 106AI caps registered SIMs at ten per person and requires identification. ›🇮🇹 Italy The 2005 anti-terror decree set identification before the SIM is handed over — and a lighter route for data-only cards. ›🇪🇸 Spain Ley 25/2007: the operator records your name and nationality in a register before selling a prepaid SIM. ›🇫🇷 France Identity is checked before a local line is issued. A roaming profile is not a local line — the instrument says so in its own definitions. ›🇦🇱 Albania Identity is checked before a local line is issued. A roaming profile is not a local line — the instrument says so in its own definitions. ›🇨🇷 Costa Rica Article 72 of the 2022 user-protection regulation builds every prepaid record around the assigned Costa Rican telephone number, which a roaming profile never receives. Chapter XIV does regulate roaming, and each duty in it runs from a Costa Rican operator to its own subscriber abroad. ›🇬🇷 Greece Identity is checked before a local line is issued. A roaming profile is not a local line — the instrument says so in its own definitions. ›🇰🇷 South Korea Identity is checked before a local line is issued. A roaming profile is not a local line — the instrument says so in its own definitions. ›🇿🇦 South Africa Identity is checked before a local line is issued. A roaming profile is not a local line — the instrument says so in its own definitions. ›🇩🇪 Germany § 172 TKG names seven documents a prepaid seller may check — one of them written for foreign passports. ›🇨🇭 Switzerland Identity is checked before a local line is issued. A roaming profile is not a local line — the instrument says so in its own definitions. ›🇵🇹 Portugal Identity is checked before a local line is issued. A roaming profile is not a local line — the instrument says so in its own definitions. ›🇲🇪 Montenegro Registration exists and Article 166(1) puts it on the Montenegrin operator; the register needs an assigned subscriber number a roaming profile never receives. One separate rule does reach you: Article 141(3) bans connecting terminal equipment that fails technical requirements, with a 150 to 1,500 euro fine on a natural person. ›🇩🇴 Dominican Republic A Dominican SIM stays inactive until the provider validates the user's identity, and the record ties passport, IMEI and number together. INDOTEL wrote in Resolución 041-2020 that a tourist reports a stolen handset to their home provider, not to a Dominican one. ›🇰🇪 Kenya Legal Notice 90 of 2025 puts registration on Kenyan operators and their agents, and a foreigner buying a local line presents a passport. The only offence written for an individual is knowingly giving false information on a registration form, which a roaming profile never involves. ›🇵🇱 Poland Poland registers prepaid SIMs, and asks a non-EU foreigner for a passport or residence card number under Article 296. The duty binds a party to a contract with a Polish provider, and Article 45(5) describes the inbound roamer and puts the duty on the Polish network instead. ›🇿🇼 Zimbabwe Subscriber registration is required before a local line is activated. ›🇲🇳 Mongolia Registration attaches when a Mongolian number is issued, and the provider carries the duty. ›
Adopted, not yet in force
On the statute book with a start date still to come. We name the date and what is missing.
The rule protects you
The duty falls on the carrier, not on you — and it exists to stop your number being stolen.
Struck down
The registry existed and a court removed it. Not "we found nothing" — a document that ends the rule.
Real rule, outside our product
Strict where it applies, and the definitions in the instrument itself keep a travel eSIM out of scope.
🇦🇺 Australia Identity checks are mandatory before a local prepaid line activates — and a roaming profile is not one. ›🇧🇷 Brazil A federal law devoted to prepaid registration — it binds Brazilian carriers and the shops that sell handsets, not a roaming profile. ›🇵🇪 Peru Peru runs a national IMEI registry, and Article 5.4 of the regulation says in as many words that equipment temporarily in the country need not be entered in the White List to operate and reach international roaming. Buying a local line is the strict path: fingerprint verification, or an original passport for foreigners. ›🇳🇴 Norway The new ekomloven does require unique identification of the end user, but §§ 2-8 and 2-9 bind providers of number-based person-to-person services, a class the act defines by connection to a numbering plan. A data-only profile has no number. ›🇬🇦 Gabon Homologation under article 65 is checked at importers and resellers, not on a traveller’s phone. ›
No rule in the statute we read
Counted phrase by phrase in the telecom act itself. A negative result, not a guarantee.
🇨🇦 Canada The Telecommunications Act carries no duty to identify a SIM buyer — counted, phrase by phrase. ›🇳🇿 New Zealand Two telecom acts, a million characters, and the word SIM appears in neither — the only person told to show ID is the technician on your land. ›🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia The telecom act never mentions voice over IP, and it asks a visitor for nothing: the words subscriber, identity and identification do not appear in it. Article 24(2) does prohibit bypassing internet filtering, and Article 92 of the implementing regulations deems a type-approved device licensed for use in the Kingdom. ›🇮🇪 Ireland The regulator itself wrote that Ireland has no mandatory SIM registration for prepaid mobiles (ComReg 23/52, paragraph 6.90, 16 June 2023). The one identifying statute, the Communications (Retention of Data) Act 2011, binds service providers. ›🇮🇸 Iceland No self-executing registration duty exists in the telecoms act. Article 93(4) is a power to make rules for holders of Icelandic numbers, and a roaming profile holds none. ›🇬🇪 Georgia The telecom act contains no SIM, IMEI or passport provision, counted on the official English text, and defines a subscriber as a party to a prior written contract with a Georgian provider. We searched the Commission's decrees in both languages and found no identification rule. ›🇶🇦 Qatar The regulator published a policy to correct the press: «There are no laws or rules that prohibit the use of such technology within the State of Qatar». What needs a licence is selling calls to the public, under Article 9 of the telecom law. ›🇳🇱 Netherlands The Dutch telecom act never writes the word SIM — counted in two editions two and a half years apart. ›🇲🇹 Malta Chapter 399 contains no SIM registration, no IMEI and no identity requirement for a user, counted as whole words on the consolidated English text. Its only mention of identity is a definition of a service type. ›🇾🇹 Mayotte The French telecom code sets no identity condition for buying a line; the duties it creates fall on the operator. ›
Read, and still open
A device system is running and we could not read the act behind it. What we did read is on the page, and so is what we could not.
🇱🇰 Sri Lanka SIM registration is the operator's duty and is keyed to a Sri Lankan number. But Act 39 of 2024 widened section 22 to cover whoever would use or possess radio frequency emitting apparatus without a licence, and no text we could read says whether a visitor's handset needs one. ›🇹🇳 Tunisia Tunisia runs a national IMEI registry, Sajalni, and it can blacklist a handset. Article 12 of décret gouvernemental 2020-48 exempts a phone imported for personal or temporary use from the homologation that Article 83 of the code punishes, but the circular behind the registry is not published and sajalni.tn does not open from outside Tunisia. ›
Start here
Which rules actually reach you Every rule we have read, split by whether it follows the phone in your pocket or stops at a local line. The difference decides whether it is your problem. › The APN your Android needs, by country The exact string to type in the 66 countries where an eSIM installs fine and still carries no data. › What network a travel eSIM actually gets you 69 countries reach 5G, 132 stop at 4G — and three are still 3G only, which is the number that matters. › What the same gigabyte costs, country by country The usual «price per GB» comparison says 43×. Compared like for like it is 6.5× — and the difference is the point. › Which travel eSIM gives you a phone number Almost none: 44 plans out of 1878, in five countries, each with its own limits on who you can call. ›
The mechanics, in detail
Bangladesh NEIR: 30 Days on a Local SIM, 90 Without Registration › Do You Need ID to Buy an eSIM? 0 of 368 Require ID › IMEI Registration Countries: 5 Regimes, No Two Alike › Indonesia IMEI Registration: The HKT Customs Rule Explained › Pakistan PTA/DIRBS Registration: 60 vs 120 Days › Saily, Nomad, Holafly, Ubigi: 3 Clauses Compared › Turkey IMEI Registration: The 120-Day Rule Explained ›
Work out the cost, and what changed
The rules above as data: rulebook.json · rulebook.csv. One row per country, with the document, the date we read it, and whether the rule reaches a roaming profile at all. Free to quote with a link.
A rule marked as sourced was read on the regulator’s own document, with the date on the country page. A rule marked reported, not yet sourced was not: we have seen the consequence described, not the paperwork behind it. Rules change without notice — verify before you fly.