Egypt asks mobile firms to block anonymous users

Egypt tries to combat a wave of public discontent over rising prices and low wages that have sparked a series of labor and anti-government strikes, organized largely by mobile phone and over the Internet.

The move is expected to affect several hundred thousand customers who did not register their names and addresses when they acquired phone lines -- still a small portion of overall subscribers in the most populous Arab country.

"Everyone who uses the telephone must be known," Trade Minister Rachid Mohamed Rachid told a news conference, adding that the move was needed for "public security."

Vodafone Egypt, one of three mobile operators in Egypt, has started disabling text messaging capabilities for anonymous subscribers, and was asking them to come forward with their details, a company spokesman said.

Rival operator Mobinil <EMOB.CA> linked the move to government plans for mobile number portability, which would allow subscribers to change service providers while keeping their original phone numbers.

Cairo-based political analyst Elijah Zarwan said there were "legitimate security reasons" for the move by telecoms regulators but expressed skepticism over the timing.

"The timing raises eyebrows because it coincided with the calls for a strike," Zarwan said. "I think it is worrisome."

"In the last strike, the organizers took out new cell phones just for the occasion and were very, very careful of talking on their own phones with the assumption that their phones were already tapped," he said, referring to an April 6 action.

Political activists, mainly liberals and leftists, had called for a new strike on Sunday against rising food prices that coincided with President Hosni Mubarak's 80th birthday, but most Egyptians ignored the call in another sign the opposition lacks the power to mobilize large-scale public protest.