No you don't. I'm German and I've gotten cell phone service with several providers over the last few years even before I had a SSN / credit history / ... So fa

No you don't. I'm German and I've gotten cell phone service with several providers over the last few years even before I had a SSN / credit history / ... So far I tried: Redpocket / T-Mobile (30$ Walmart/online plan) / AT&T Go Phone / T-Mobile Monthly plan / ... All of them give you Voice Minutes, Data and Messaging. I just popped those SIM cards into my (unlocked) GSM phone and that was that. I guess what you can't get are those 100$ / month with a "subsidised" phone plans. But I don't know why anybody would want these. Any of those options cost me less than 55$ / month. I'm currently on the T-mobile 30$/Walmart/Online plan. 100 minutes talk, Unlimited text, First 5 GB at up to 4G speeds. No need for any of the mentioned things. p.s. and the ones I picked are only a small subset. H2O and Simple are even available at a lot of supermarkets.