This might be because most countries nowadays require a photo ID for SIM cards. The Netherlands, UK and US are among the few that don't (yet).

https://prepaid-data-sim-card.fandom.com/wiki/Registration_P...

Photo ID? Then how do you get an anonymous burner phone? Order it online somehow?

In an increasing number of places, you don't (except perhaps by forcing or convincing someone to let you use their identity). Where I'm at right now, receiving SMS or making phone calls require a subscription with photo ID and physical address - prepaids and travel SIMs are data-only these days. The latter ones also require photo ID for service activation.

The whole rationale of the laws in these countries is that you shouldn't be allowed to get one.

But why? It's not anyone's business but my own. If a snotty call phone rep insisted on a treating me like a teenager at a bar they would be some talking and not from my mouth.

For instance, Eurolink eSIM card with 180 days validity can be had for 180 euros on Airalo.com. They also have re-chargeable eSIMs, just you need to top up just before it expires.

Ah but that is really really expensive :)

I can get a local SIM with 50GB data that is available with a 10 euro topup each month.

Don't forget the purchasing power in Europe is much lower than in the US (especially southern Europe). For this reason local carriers are a lot cheaper too.

If argue that it's the opposite as there is competition and in civilised European countries there is working regulation etc, not like the US where carriers are able to lobby and cheat to maintain their monopolies - case in point I have unlimited everything (Inc 5g, except MMS) in country and 64G in the rest of Europe for about 30 EUR/mo

And you can have the same for a similar price in the States. The US cellular market is quite good. Have a look at Canada if you want to see what a cartel looks like.

Last time I was in the US it was pretty bad, I'm not sure comparing to the worst is fair but compared to Europe it's not so great - at the time I had T-Mobile but they differentiated different states etc as they may need roaming domestically - you're just not allowed to do that here

What do you mean by except MMS? That's not even data

While unlimited calls/SMS/data* is quite a common offering in Europe, MMS is often not included in such bundles and costs extra.

*Genuinely unlimited data - including tethering, no speed limits or soft caps where you get limited to 128kbps or anything like that after using 100GB.

Correct, advertising unlimited with caps is not allowed, unlike the US for example.

In my case they clearly have to say upfront on the cheaper unlimited, it's not rate limited until X but the caps have to be proportionate so it's still absolutely fine, they do have an "always on" thing for capped packages though, so you're never really cut off (data only which does not have such strict regulation as voice/SMS)

Technically it is data, but it's an archaic system that really should just go away and be replaced by something native to IMS/LTE+ but unfortunately legacy is hard to kill

What makes you think it's for temporary use? I've been using it for over a year as my only data plan.

Is the price cheap enough to do that? Last time I looked it was much cheaper to go with a local carrier almost anywhere I looked.

Cheap is relative. I pay about $25 for 20GB, which lasts me a month. Yeah, local SIM cards might have cheaper options, but I'm not complaining about $25 a month. I spend more on a single lunch.

The cost. The prices are very high.

I don't consider $25 for 20GB to be "very high". Of course, you can find cheaper. But $25 is less than a lunch in most places.

A lunch is most definitely not close to as high as $25 "in most places" unless you go for upscale fine dining, considering that $25 is above global daily median income.