On January 1, 2025, the Egyptian government launched an app called Telephony<\/strong>, managed by the NTRA<\/strong> (National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority) and the Customs Authority<\/strong>. There are different opinions online about the registration requirement and when exactly the phone blocking in Egypt takes effect, so let\u2019s clarify the situation based on the information currently available.<\/p> Here are some confirmed facts and a few unclear points:<\/p> Phones that were purchased or activated before January 1, 2025, are not required to be registered through the new Telephony system.<\/p> You have 90 days to register your phone on Telephony. After this period, access to mobile networks will be blocked.<\/p> What we don\u2019t know:<\/strong><\/p> It is not clear whether the 90-day countdown starts when you enter Egypt or when you first connect to an Egyptian mobile network (for example, when you activate a local SIM).<\/p> It is confirmed that tourists can bring one phone per person<\/strong> into the country without having to pay any registration fee. What we don\u2019t know:<\/strong> If you fall under the registration and duty payment requirement, you may have to pay up to 38.5% of the phone\u2019s value<\/strong>.<\/p> How is the fee calculated?<\/strong> While it\u2019s still unclear whether all phones must in any case be registered on the Telephony app, if you are a tourist<\/strong> and instead of buying an Egyptian SIM you decide to stay connected using your usual SIM (thus paying your provider\u2019s roaming rates) or using an eSIM<\/strong>, and your stay in Egypt is less than 90 days<\/strong>, you should not have to pay any customs duties on your phone.<\/p> However, if once you arrive you decide to buy a local Egyptian SIM card<\/strong> to access the internet, this will start the 90-day grace period<\/strong> for registering your phone and potentially paying the related fees.<\/p> We do not know if the 90 days must be consecutive<\/strong> or cumulative<\/strong>. If intermittent connections to the Egyptian network are also counted for tourists, our advice is to change your Egypt eSIM before the 90 days expire<\/strong>.<\/p> So, if you plan a one-month vacation in Egypt<\/strong> and activate an eSIM, you shouldn\u2019t have any problems. If you bring one personal phone<\/strong>, stay in Egypt for less than 90 days<\/strong>, and use an eSIM<\/strong>, you should be completely exempt from paying the new smartphone duties, thus avoiding any phone blocking.<\/p> It remains unclear whether you must still register your smartphone in the Telephony app. We are committed to updating this article whenever new information or confirmed details become available.<\/p> Written on October 9, 2025<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Everything we know about phone blocking in Egypt: who it applies to, since when, and which details are confirmed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4098,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet-mobile"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/esim.sm\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/blocco-smartphone-egitto.webp","author_info":{"display_name":"Roberta","author_link":"https:\/\/esim.sm\/blog\/author\/roberta\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esim.sm\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esim.sm\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esim.sm\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esim.sm\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esim.sm\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4105"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/esim.sm\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4108,"href":"https:\/\/esim.sm\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4105\/revisions\/4108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esim.sm\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esim.sm\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esim.sm\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esim.sm\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The app is used to register smartphones imported from abroad and to pay customs duties if applicable.<\/p> What we know about phone blocking in Egypt<\/h2>
The requirement is not retroactive:<\/h3>
Grace period:<\/h3>
One phone per tourist is exempt:<\/h3>
The maximum number of mobile devices<\/strong> a tourist can bring is four<\/strong>. One (the exempted one) is considered for personal use, while the other three are considered for business use and are always subject to customs duties.<\/p>
It is unclear whether the exemption for tourists is automatic or whether the phone still needs to be registered in the app and then declared exempt.
Other sources suggest that simply declaring the phone at customs is enough. To be safe, we recommend declaring your phone at customs and asking about the registration requirements.<\/p> Amount of duties:<\/h3>
In the Telephony app, you\u2019ll be asked to enter your phone\u2019s IMEI code<\/strong>. Based on this, the app will automatically calculate the amount due, and you\u2019ll be able to pay directly through the app.
No detailed information has been released yet about how the amount is determined.<\/p> What changes when using a local SIM or an eSIM?<\/h2>
If you return to Egypt<\/strong> a second time with the same smartphone<\/strong> and plan to stay for two months and one day<\/strong>, we recommend purchasing a new eSIM<\/strong> instead of reusing the same one (for example, the same Global eSIM), since this could exceed the 90-day limit, even if the days are not consecutive.<\/p> Conclusions about phone blocking in Egypt<\/h2>
Our advice is to declare your phone at customs<\/strong> and take the opportunity to ask whether registration is required or not.<\/p>