Egypt's regulator refers all four national mobile operators to prosecutor's office

Egypt's National Telecom Regulatory Authority has referred the country's four mobile operators to the public prosecutor's office and approved urgent measures to protect consumers' identity, it said on Monday.

The referral followed the inspection of complaints received over the last two days, involving lines registered in users' names without their knowledge, the regulator said in a statement. It said evidence and documents had been compiled for legal action.

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Contacted by Reuters, none of the companies had any immediate comment.

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Following meetings with the operators, the regulator said the urgent measures it had approved included halting new line activations through corporate accounts and requiring companies to notify holders of older corporate-registered lines to re-sign contracts in their own names, or have the lines cancelled.

It also ordered the faster rollout of biometric verification via mobile apps to let users confirm and manage lines registered under their names.

The regulator said it was committed to protecting the rights of telecom users and safeguarding their personal data, and to confronting any practices that violate the approved rules and procedures for registering and activating mobile lines.

In social media posts seen by Reuters phone users said they had discovered SIM cards had been registered in their names across different networks without their knowledge or consent.