In an interview with Al-Masry Al-Youm, Hisham al-Alaily, CEO of the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA), said he has ordered mobile phone companies to stop service for unknown lines and lines with inaccurate data for purposes of national security.
He also said that the NTRA is updating the data of 24 million mobile phone lines and that seven million lines without data have already been canceled.
Q: How many lines will be cut?
A: We have returned service to 18 million lines after updating their data, six million lines were updated without stopping the service and seven million were canceled.
Q: How can you avoid this in the future?
A: We have installed an automated system to ensure the validity and accuracy of the data of the new lines. Also, only one voice line chip and one data chip will be allowed for each ID card.
We periodically inspect the companies and distributors to make sure they adhere to the rules, which 85 percent of them do. For the rest, we cancel their licenses and report them to the police.
Q: Does NTRA trackdown mobile phone lines used by terrorist groups?
A: This is not our responsibility.
Q: What about the unified license?
A: The mobile phone companies have approved the unified license in principle, but still await the final approval of their boards of directors. We will issue it once the national company that provides the telecommunications infrastructure services is formed.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
