An Alexandria lawyer filed a lawsuit Saturday before the administrative court calling for a government decision to devalue mobile recharging cards by 36 percent to be annulled.

Egypt's National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) ratified Thursday evening a decision by mobile companies to decrease the value of mobile recharging cards by 36 percent, starting Friday.

The decision means that a EGP 100 recharging card will give EGP 70 credit, a EGP 50 card will give EGP 35 credit, a EGP 25 will provide EGP 17.5 credit, and so on.

Lawyer Tarek Mahmoud filed the suit against the Egyptian prime minister and minister of telecommunications, as well as the head of NTRA.

The claimant justified the action saying that the decision "will affect Egyptian citizens, and will put burdens on families, who use mobile phones on daily basis."

The government decision met strong criticism on social media, sparking campaigns calling for a boycott of mobile companies.

The Citizens Against Price Increases group called on their Facebook page for all mobile users to participate in a boycott of the three mobile companies Friday, adding that a pressure group would be formed Saturday to call for the decision to be reversed.

The group also called on the Egyptian Competition Authority to intervene in favour of consumer rights, and end these monopolistic acts that it said are against the law.

Earlier this month, landline monopoly Telecom Egypt launched WE, the country’s fourth mobile network, joining Orange, Vodafone and Etisalat.

The new mobile network is available with the technologies of 2G and 3G, and 4G experimentally.

Pre-paid cards for the fourth mobile network will be available 15 October.