[vinay427]

Various countries besides the US (often other "Anglo" countries) don't require any identification to get a SIM card, while as you mentioned some countries require identification and sometimes even more steps like physical address verification. In my experience as a tourist, these additional steps are sometimes unnecessarily complex and are often somewhat of a hassle.

An argument can be made that this hassle is worth it for security concerns (which is what they often tend to be sold as) but personally I find it less reasonable for preventing against SIM swap hacks when there are many alternatives to SMS 2FA.

[2rsf]

> to get a SIM card

getting a new card is not the same as swapping

[rasz]

I dont know of any way of transferring phone number to a card you already posses, the only way is re provisioning to a brand new card.

[vinay427]

Swapping a SIM card and verifying identity requires some identity to match with, presumably provided at time of activation.