Estonia: Interior Ministry wants to ban anonymous prepaid SIM cards

Estonia’s Ministry of Interior will propose banning the use of non-personalised prepaid SIM cards, ERR reports. Under the proposal, anyone would still be able to buy a prepaid SIM card, but would have to provide personal details to activate the card. Veiko Kommusaar, undersecretary for internal security at the Ministry of Interior, noted that Estonia was one of the few countries in the EU where anonymous SIM cards were available. He pointed out that criminals were using anonymous SIM cards and changed phones frequently, making it more difficult for police to track them down. Also, a large proportion of fraudulent calls were made using non-personalised SIM cards, Kommusaar added.