Moreover, the "chips" described in your article only refer to a billing method for cell phone usage, that can be purchased anonymously. The phones themselves, still transmits a header that, I believe, includes the information I mentioned: make, model and SN of the phone.
That information is sufficient to make a bobby trapping operation a possibility.
--Boot Hill
I went back and re-read the article myself. I see what you mean about the Swisscom phones being normal cell phone chips. the article does note that OBL was reportedly heard using a satellite phone in the Tora Bora area in 2001, but that he has since moved to more secure currier communication.
One would have thought that others that run in those circles would have gotten the message that calls, whether landline, cell or satellite, can be traced. Maybe Nek thought talking with the BBC made him invulnerable.