What changed, and when
RSS feed — regulators publish without notice, and this is the one page that moves on its own.
Rules move; the articles ranking for them usually don’t. Every entry below carries the date of the regulator’s own document — so you can tell at a glance whether a guide you are reading elsewhere predates the rule it describes. 6 regulator changes, 6 of our own checks.
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Oman’s call block is a regulator’s decision, and it is written so no traveller can be on the right side of it
Oman sat on our list as reported and unsourced because the regulator’s site refuses automated readers. The decision itself is public elsewhere. TRA Decision 1152/2/3/2022/1, issued 5 September 2022 and published in Official Gazette No. 1458 on 11 September 2022, makes providing voice or video calls over IP without a permit unlawful (Art. 5). The permit exists only for education, work, medical fields or organisational use (Art. 2), and Art. 12(1) then bars the holder from providing the service to natural persons at all. So there is no lawful route by which consumer app calling reaches a private person in Oman. We read the Arabic text on the legal publisher qanoon.om because tra.gov.om blocks machine access; the regulator’s own pages confirm the permit type exists and that provision is approval-gated. Data works. Calls over WhatsApp and FaceTime do not, and now we can say why.
Source: Official Gazette 1458 via qanoon.om, confirmed on tra.gov.om · the full breakdown
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Nigeria registers foreign subscribers — except on roaming, in the text itself
We listed Nigeria as a confirmed trap and had never read the document. We have now. The regime is real and gazetted: the NCC (Registration of Communications Subscribers) Regulations 2022, S.I. No. 86, Official Gazette No. 147 of 15 August 2022. Regulation 13 takes roaming out by name — a licensee must register “a foreigner other than Roaming Services”. The Business Rules in force, amended August 2026, carry no registration procedure for a roaming subscriber at all. The trap flag came off Nigeria the day we read it.
Source: ncc.gov.ng · the full breakdown
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Qatar has no law against calls over messaging apps — its regulator says so in writing
Qatar sits on our list because calls over WhatsApp and FaceTime fail there. What we could not do was point at a rule. There is none. The only document Qatar’s regulator has ever published on the subject, the Qatar VoIP Policy of 20 July 2008, still in the CRA document library, states that no law or rule prohibits using the technology; what needs a licence is selling voice services to the public. So the block is a commercial decision by operators, not a legal ban. The consequence for your calls is the same. What changes is what we can tell you about it, and this page now says the difference out loud.
Source: cra.gov.qa · the full breakdown
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India dropped out of the manual-APN set
India used to be one of the countries where an Android phone needs the APN typed in by hand, and our device pages listed it among thirteen such countries. Both of its catalogue records now carry an automatic APN with no value to fall back on, which makes the count twelve. Checked 3 September 2026 against the same catalogue the price pages are built from.
Source: Airalo partner catalogue · the full breakdown
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Egypt moved off the installation clock, and the old advice became harmful
Until 12 August 2026 both of the Egypt operator records in the catalogue we sell from counted a plan's days from installation, so this site told readers to install at the last moment. A fresh pull on 3 September shows both records set to first use instead. The old advice would now strand someone installing at an airport with no wifi, so every page carrying it was corrected. Three countries still run an installation clock: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Suriname, and Mayotte — Mayotte on only one of its two records. The catalogue publishes no changelog, so we can date the change but not explain it.
Source: Airalo partner catalogue · the full breakdown
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Georgia does not run a confirmed device-registration regime
Georgia is widely listed as an IMEI-registration country. We checked: ComCom, the communications regulator, does not mention device registration, a registry or blocking anywhere. The domain usually cited as proof is a private checking service, not a state registry. No primary document could be found.
Source: comcom.ge · the full breakdown
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One line per operator for tourists comes into force
The Yönetmelik package published in Resmî Gazete on 11 June 2026 took effect. A visitor without residency may hold one line per operator — the blogger rule of thumb about 90 days describes something else entirely.
Source: Resmî Gazete · the full breakdown
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Egypt ended the customs exemption on phones carried by passengers
Effective 12:00 noon. Tourists and Egyptians living abroad keep a 90-day exemption, counted from the date the device was activated. Taxes are paid through the Telephony app. NTRA does not publish a rate — figures circulating elsewhere have no primary source.
Source: tra.gov.eg · the full breakdown
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DIRBS FAQ restated the 60-day limit from first connectivity
A device works 60 days from first connectivity without registration, then stops receiving service. This is the clock most travellers meet — and it is not the same clock as the 120-day temporary registration.
Source: pta.gov.pk · the full breakdown
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BTK blocklist reached roughly 52 eSIM sellers across three decisions
Three decisions between July and September 2025 blocked the websites and apps of around 52 providers. The block hits the storefront, not a profile already installed on a phone.
Source: BTK · the full breakdown
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Pakistan published the SOP for 120-day temporary registration
Free of duty and tax, counted from the date of arrival, available on each visit. It extends the device beyond the 60-day default — but only if you actually register.
Source: pta.gov.pk · the full breakdown
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Nepal brought MDMS into force
Devices arriving after this date are subject to registration. Phones cleared through customs register automatically. NTA states no tourist exemption — the 15-day threshold that circulates online predates the notice itself.
Source: nta.gov.np · the full breakdown
This page lists what we read at the regulator ourselves. It is not a complete record of every change in every country — eSIM Rules covers the countries it has published, and says so where it has not checked.