Egypt to tighten mobile line registration with facial recognition

Egypt is implementing stricter regulations for mobile phone line registration to combat identity fraud and cybercrime. Ahmed Badawi, Chairman of the Communications and Information Technology Committee in the House of Representatives, announced that new measures will include facial recognition and verifying the user's mother's name to ensure identity authenticity.

These steps follow a controversy involving a student who received a life sentence for drug trafficking because a mobile line registered in his name was used by an unknown individual. The National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) has been working to regulate the market since 2018, but new technological advancements and crime patterns have necessitated more rigorous verification beyond the national ID card.

Telecommunications companies have begun reviewing user data. Lines that fail to meet the new update requirements may be suspended. Additionally, the NTRA noted that lines inactive for three consecutive months without calls or service usage will be deactivated and may eventually be re-released for sale to new users under new contracts.