The same is true in Hong Kong, no ID required.

You can even purchase cards without ID that also work in Mainland China and aren't subject to the great firewall.

In Russia one cannot (in theory; actually it's possible sometimes). In Japan an ID is required as far as I know.

In Japan ID is required for voice service, but I think not for data only.

I can confirm that you don't need an ID for data only in Japan.

You can't sign up for Signal with a data only SIM

Yes, you can. Data only SIM cards can receive SMS's. At least in Portugal they do.

Oh, interesting. I don’t think they can in Japan

Not the same crossing the Tasman sea. It's mixed in Australia. One can only have 5 pre-paid mobile numbers under 1 name (activation limit). However, you can still buy SIM packs from supermarkets or convenient stores, not sure if activation requires ID, it may depend on provider.

NZ is obviously loose due to large number of tourists, I reckon. So easy to get SIM cards, I've got 2 (spark and 2 degrees). US also requires ID to get SIM last time I was in bay area (2016).

> not sure if activation requires ID

Pretty sure they all do. I've used prepaid on all the major carriers and bigger MVNOs and I needed to give some form of ID to the signup process.

In europe it's mixed: https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/9ziqfi/european_cou...

I recently visited what is apparently a prepaid-SIM-without-ID island of the Czech Republic, accustomed to places where registration is required. The person in the telecom store selling me the SIM looked at me with an almost disarming "this is the Czech Republic" look when I asked if she needed to see my passport.

In Germany you now apparently need to show ID and provide an address, though no proof of residence so any address seems acceptable.

In Germany, I need to do PostIdent or handover my address+copy of my ID/passport to buy a SIM card. To further check things, telecom sends letters to corresponding address too sometimes.

Not over the border in Australia.