And the point is?...
Michael Haberler wrote:
In the context of validation of numbers for ENUM, I have tried to
estimate the amount of mobile users which have totally anonymously
bought a prepaid SIM card, or in other words, users of E.164 numbers
which have no trace at all in a phonebook or other records.
In the EU, all countries except Germany, Hungary and Italy permit
totally anonymous purchase of prepaid SIM cards. This indicates that
about 65% of the EU population have access to anonymous mobile
service (even in Italy, just a taxpayer code is needed which is not
subscriber data but allows to track down a user for law enforcement -
but lets leave that out for the sake of argument; in France I
understand a record is made for purposes of recovering a lost SIM
card but not for proof of identity).
There are about 400 Million mobile users in Europe, and penetration
of prepaid is about 40%. Assuming that nobody registers if he doesnt
have to, and multiplying those figures a ballpark estimate is that
*there are about 100 Million E.164 numbers in use in Europe without
any subscriber data just through the use of prepaid SIM cards.
*-Michael