Politician Queries Egyptian Plans to Block IMEI-Less Phones

Published on: 1st Jan 1970: 1:33am

An Egyptian politician has submitted a formal question to the parliament over plans to block all mobile phones that lack an IMEI, the state-run MENA news agency reported.

Hassanein el-Shoura, a member of Egyptian People's Assembly ( the lower house of parliament), asked the parliament to query Communications and Information Technology Minister Tareq Kamel on the National Telecom Regulatory Authority's decision to cut services to Chinese mobile phones without IMEI, said the report.

The politician said those mobile phones have been available in the Egyptian markets for several years, pointing out that Chinese mobile phones represent 70 percent of the hand-held sets in Egypt.

The NTRA announced in February that the country's three mobile operators will block services to all anonymous users and made-in- China cell phones without IMEI in Egyptian market.

NTRA officials said it is impossible to cut services to all the unknown mobile phones at the same time as the scale of the shut-down could be considerable.

 

Tags: [imei]  [politician]  [parliament]  [national telecom regulatory]  [Egypt]