Blackberry still under security cloud

The government is believed to have issued instructions to mobile service providers like Bharti Airtel, Reliance and Vodafone not to route certain Blackberry services unless the required monitoring system was put in place.

According to officials in the Department of Telecom (DoT), Blackberry licensor Research-in-Motion (RIM) has sought time till April 18 to address issues raised by it relating to lawful interception of content sent through Blackberry device.

DoT fears that the service could become a threat to national security since communication through Blackberry devices was routed through a server outside the country. Hence, the government has asked RIM to place a monitoring system in India.

Blackberry is a premium mobile service that allows sending and receiving e-mails in the form of SMS and has about four lakh subscribers in India. Most of the high-end users of mobile operators use Blackberry both for voice as well as data services.

"They (RIM) have sought time till April 18 to revert to us on all the issues raised relating to lawful interception of the contents on Blackberry. If our issues are not addressed we may be forced to take a stern action," DoT officials said.

DoT had held a meeting of all service providers, RIM officials and other stakeholders last week to resolve the issue, sources said that RIM is likely to offer some solution.

Tata Teleservices is still awaiting approval from the DoT as well as Ministry of Home Affairs to start Blackberry services for its subscribers.  

Asked whether the company would be reverting to DoT with a resolution of the issues raised by DoT and the security agencies, the company remained tight lipped. DoT is likely to meet the service providers again next week to review the situation.

Sources said the Blackberry service provider will have to place the monitoring system in India and that was possible only if the server for routing of calls and e-mails was in the country of operation.