Do you need to register your phone (IMEI) at Hurghada airport when buying a local SIM card in Egypt?

One traveler with dual-SIM phone has had one slot blocked since May 2025 — the issue isn't universal but fairly common among travelers she's spoken to. She now always carries a backup connectivity option, noting that cheap roaming from some home-country carriers now costs about the same as an eSIM, and avoids bringing a newer phone to Egypt as a precaution.

According to reports from several travelers, those who arrived after the 25th and hadn't previously been in the country with the same phone had no SIM issues. As a precaution, one traveler bought a portable pocket WiFi router but ended up never using it during the whole trip — it just rides along in the suitcase as a backup.

An experienced traveler who visits Hurghada every year in April and September always asks staff to activate the SIM card immediately at the airport when buying it. In April she uses her son's old phone as a hotspot for internet sharing, and for the September trip she looks for a spare unused phone for the same purpose. Among local operators (WE, Vodafone, Orange, Etisalat), she considers WE the best based on her experience.

One traveler didn't register their phone at the airport on a previous trip — the SIM card was activated automatically without manual registration, and no connectivity issues occurred.

A traveler asked whether a phone registered at the airport a year ago should still be fine now — assuming that since the registration went through successfully back then, there shouldn't be any issues this time.

A traveler regretted not knowing last year that phones need to be registered at the airport when buying a local SIM card in Hurghada — this can be a source of connectivity problems on trips.