Lithuania: Operators slam mandatory registration of prepaid SIM cards

Lithuanian mobile operators criticised the government’s plan to introduce mandatory registration of prepaid SIM cards as of 2024, LRT reports. The government argues that mandatory registration is necessary due to phone fraud and other criminal activity. Vytautas Bucinskas, head of business assurance at Telia Lietuva, pointed out that prepaid SIM cards were often used by tourists and elderly people. Also, hundreds of thousands of prepaid SIM cards were used in remote devices, he noted. Asta Buitkute, spokeswoman for TELE2, warned that mandatory registration could create a black market for SIM cards. Marta Boguzaite, head of Bite Lietuva’s Labas service, pointed out that prepaid SIM cards would be easy to import from countries where they are not registered, such as Latvia. Lithuania had more than 1.2mn users of prepaid SIM cards in the second quarter of 2023, which was almost 26% of all active SIM cards.