In June I purchased a United Mobile SIM card, largely on the basis of the very helpful advice from xyz123. We are leaving next week for Italy, where I intend to use the card.

When I received my card, there was nothing with it about registration. But someone who purchased their card after me said they got a notice with the card that they were supposed to register it, faxing to United Mobile a form that is available as a pdf on their web site.

So I am wondering if somethiing has changed in the law, and the card has to be registered before I can use it. Or would this only apply to cards purchased after a certain date? I did write to UM customer service with my question, but after several days have received only a boilerplate acknowledgment.

Does anyone know whether I will have a problem using my phone if I don’t register the card ahead of time?

I noticed this registration thing recently onthe web site too...I don't know if it's mandatory for new cards or whatever but you can easily check if there is a problem with the sim..just call for your balance (you can do that from North America for free)...if it works you have no problem!

...you might wish to post the query on www.prepaidgsm.net

That forum has many experts on the subject of using internationals sims and perhaps somebody there has the answer.

BTW the registration form is available on the web site...nothing on the web site makes it seem if registration is mandatory.

I just received my UM sim yesterday, and it does appear that registration is required, although it wasn't written in big bold letters, and is not even mentioned in the 'welcome to UM' letter that came with it.

The little green and white starterpack instruction booklet (that the card is 'stuck' to) has the registration form as the back page. The first page of the instructions says "Important: Your SIM card will be deactivated if you do not register yourself within 14 days of activation on www.united-mobile.com" But you can't register ON united-mobile.com at this point - just by fax.

The registration required a copy of mypassport/id card (AND asked for the identity number on the form), which I thought was a little odd.

bookmarking for me

wow...thanks so much for the heads-up. I didn't even notice that. I just received my sim card the other day, and I leave on Sunday. I tossed it to the side and was planning on dealing with it later in the week.
This message board has totally been my salvation. haha

I just looked again at the instruction book, and buried way deep in the fine print of "General Terms and Instructions" it says that "in accordance with prevailing regulations, the customer is obliged at the time of purchase of the SIM card, to identify himself by means of a valid and official document. Purchase and use of a SIM card without due application shall be considered abuse of the service. Article 10 hereunder shall then be applicable."

Article 10 is about "Telephone abuse" and basically says that the UM customer can't do anything illegal with the phone and can't resell the UM services to a 3rd party.

So it sounds like this registration is just something to make it possible for UM to track any illegal activities with the phone and not anything required by law. Anyway, since I didn't get an alert like noe847's with my phone, and they haven't answered my emails with questions about it, I think I'm going to ignore it.

I will try xyz's suggestion about checking the balance though -- thanks!

Just to add that United Mobile responded to me that the registration was only required for people in Liechtenstein or Switzerland. They said eventually registration would give you access to more features on their web site, but that isn't ready yet.

So not to worry if anyone was concerned about this!

Thanks for the update! It's much appreciated!

>registration is mandatory.
It's mandatory by law, if you buy the card in Switzerland, where it is available at many post offices. In other countries, you don't need to worry about this