What's changing?
From February 1st, people in Sweden will no longer be able to activate a pre-paid sim without proving their identities and registering the number with their name. Existing pre-paid sims may also stop working after this date, unless they are activated.
Why is this change being brought in?
Sweden's police argue that banning unregistered pre-paid sim cards will make it easier to fight organised crime, as criminals will find it more difficult to use unregistered sims for so-called 'burner' phones that they use for a short period and then discard, making them harder for police to tap and trace.
"Unregistered pre-paid sims for mobile telephones are often used by criminals to make the police's work more difficult," Sweden's former justice minister, Morgan Johansson, said when the law was proposed in February 2022. "Now we are bringing an end to that and as a result giving police better tools to fight crime."
Shortly before the law came into force, Fredrik Joelsson, an officer with the Swedish police's anti-fraud section, told state broadcaster SVT that the change would "make it easier for the police and for other crime-fighting agencies".
What will people need to provide to register a new pre-paid sim?
People who have a personal number and access to Sweden's BankID online identity service can register online. (Here are links to registration for Comviq, Halebop, and Hallon)
To register a pre-paid sim online, Halebop requires you to provide your personal number, the mobile number of the pre-paid sim, and the sim card number. Comviq has a simple service on its website, which means you can receive an sms code rather than fill in the sim card number.
Can I register without BankID?
Yes. If you don't have a personal number or BankID, you may still be able register your pre-paid card in person, either at a mobile phone provider's shop, or at a retailer such as Pressbyrån or 7-Eleven.
According to Comviq, all you need is to take your phone and valid Swedish or foreign ID to a retailer selling Comviq cards, such as Pressbyrån, 7-Eleven, or even your local independent corner shop. They will then be able to register you.
To register a Halebop sim, you need to visit a Telia mobile phone shop, but, according to their website, they require that those applying fulfil one or more of the following criteria:
- Holding a social security number (for example a coordination number (samordningsnummer) or personal number (personnummer)
- Holding a residence permit
- Holding a certificate of study abroad in Sweden
- Holding a certificate for work in Sweden
- Owning a property in Sweden
Can I register without a Swedish address, Swedish documentation, or a Swedish identity number of any kind?
Yes, so long as you can prove your identity, it should be possible to use foreign documents.
Halebop says it will also register people at Telia stores who are:
- Tourists with a valid passport
- Refugees with a valid passport
Comviq says that all its retailers require is a valid foreign ID.
What happens if I already have a pre-paid sim and don't bother to register it?
According to Comviq's website, people with older pre-paid sims had to register by February 1st, 2023 "in order to avoid the risk that their number is deleted". This suggests that you might be able to continue to use your card after February 1st, but that it could be cancelled at any point after that.
It doesn't look like they will.
According to Sally Stenberg, head of legal affairs with the The Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS), the new law itself is unclear about what sort of identity documents will be sufficient. In the preparatory work leading up to the law, however, it is quite clear, she says, that the government does not want to block anyone, including foreign tourists, from being able to get a pre-paid sim.
"The government has been pretty explicit that this isn't intended to shut anyone out from having a pre-paid sim card," she said. "The law says that if you don't have a personal number you can use another identity number, and in the preparatory documents, they say that can be a passport number or your date of birth."
There was even a suggestion in some preparatory work that if someone has no documents at all, foreign or Swedish, they may be able to get a pre-paid sim if they can get a relative or close friend to vouch for them and provide their own documents.
Can people register sim cards for their children?
Yes. Pre-paid sim cards used by children should be registered using the identity documents of one of their parents or another adult responsible for looking after them.
Is there a limit to how many sims a person can have?
No. Under the law, there is no limit to the number of pre-paid sims a person can register, but if a sim is used by someone who isn't the person it is registered to or a member of their family on more than a few occasions, the mobile phone operator is supposed to shut it down. According to Stenberg, the law gives no suggestion on how mobile phone operators should determine this.
What happens to the information people provide when registering a sim?
Unless you ask for your identity to be kept secret, you name will be coupled to the mobile number of the pre-paid sim in Sweden's online telephone directories, Eniro.se and Hitta.se. Your personal number, name, address, photos of your ID documents, and other information collected will be kept by the mobile phone operator (and passed over to them by retailers).
If police require information on the identity of the person behind a certain number, or the numbers used by certain individuals, the mobile phone operators can then pass that information on to them.
"Tele2 is, as all other operators in Sweden, legally obliged, under certain circumstances, to disclose stored customer data to government agencies, normally the police authority or the security police authority," Fredrik Hallstan, press officer for Comviq's owner Tele2, told The Local in 2022. "The data stored in accordance with the new registration provisions will fall under this obligation as well."
How do mobile phone operators view the new law?
They have been critical, with Tele2 in particular complaining that the law is "not proportional", and "not sufficiently motivated".
"When comparing the foreseen upsides with the foreseen downsides of the proposal, Tele2 found – like the government has done in previous analyses of a registration obligation – that such an obligation would not be proportional," Hallstan said.
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