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Prepaid Expert · **Taiwan--No more SIM cards at Convenience Stores -** 19-03-2008, 02:02

I hadn't been to Taiwan for a few years, but was there last week. I was set to buy a SIM card at 7-11, but the Taiwan government has banned sale of SIM cards at anywhere other than phone company offices. It was an issue with criminals using prepaid SIM cards.

I finally got a card from FarEastone, but it was a pain, as the phone company offices don't open until 11:00 a.m., and I would be at the trade show by then. I did get one at night, and it was quite a time consuming process. You need two IDs, a passport and some other goverment ID, i.e. a driver's license. It took three employees about 30 minutes to get the paperwork done, faxed to the home office, etc., then another two hours before it was activated.

The next issue was to keep the account active when I'm out of the country by buying more time every six months. I planned to use their web site to top up, but even after spending 45 minutes another day at another office, they could not get the web site working. First I needed a password, which no one knew how to get. They SMS it to your phone apparently, but my GSM phone is so old that it doesn't support SMS. Then once they figured out the password by puitting the SIM into another phone, the web site still didn't work, and they weren't sure if it was a problem with their server, or something wrong with my account. So I bought an extra top-up card (still sold at 7-11) and I can call direct to a local number in Taiwan to top-up after six months.

	(#1)
Prepaid Expert (Offline) Junior Member Newbie Posts: 1 Join Date: 19 Mar 2008 Country:	Taiwan--No more SIM cards at Convenience Stores - 19-03-2008, 02:02 I hadn't been to Taiwan for a few years, but was there last week. I was set to buy a SIM card at 7-11, but the Taiwan government has banned sale of SIM cards at anywhere other than phone company offices. It was an issue with criminals using prepaid SIM cards. I finally got a card from FarEastone, but it was a pain, as the phone company offices don't open until 11:00 a.m., and I would be at the trade show by then. I did get one at night, and it was quite a time consuming process. You need two IDs, a passport and some other goverment ID, i.e. a driver's license. It took three employees about 30 minutes to get the paperwork done, faxed to the home office, etc., then another two hours before it was activated. The next issue was to keep the account active when I'm out of the country by buying more time every six months. I planned to use their web site to top up, but even after spending 45 minutes another day at another office, they could not get the web site working. First I needed a password, which no one knew how to get. They SMS it to your phone apparently, but my GSM phone is so old that it doesn't support SMS. Then once they figured out the password by puitting the SIM into another phone, the web site still didn't work, and they weren't sure if it was a problem with their server, or something wrong with my account. So I bought an extra top-up card (still sold at 7-11) and I can call direct to a local number in Taiwan to top-up after six months.