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.
Research-in-Motion, the Canada-based provider of Blackberry services, has assured Indian operators that it has come up with a solution to the contentious issue of allowing government security agencies to monitor the service without compromising data security.
Despite the meetings, exchange of letters and reports that made more than 400,000 users of Blackberry services twitch, the Department of Telecommunications has washed its hands clean. Denying reports of a spat between the DoT and Canada-based provider of BlackBerry services, Research in Motion, a senior department official said, "We have always backed our operators, and this is no different."
In what could be a relief to mobile operators and lakhs of subscribers, the government on Friday said the security issue related to Blackberry services would be resolved within a week."Most of the security issues have been resolved to the satisfaction of the security agencies," Telecom Minister A Raja said.
The government is likely to refer the controversial issue of Blackberry mobile phones to the Telecom Commission to decide whether operators can continue offering this service. The issue of Blackberry was raised after Tata Teleservices recently said they have been denied the permission to offer this value added service by the Ministry of Home Affairs due to security concerns. Telecom operators like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone & Reliance are offering Blackberry services to users.
Indian operators offering BlackBerry services, top executives of Canadian telco Research in Motion (RIM), the company that owns the brand, security agencies and officials of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) are expected to meet on March 14 to answer the concerns of security agencies in a bid to prevent having BlackBerry services terminated after the March-end deadline.
Anil Dhirubhai AG company Reliance Communications became the first CDMA telecom service provider in India on Monday to launch Blackberry, the push mail smart phone from Canada-based Research in Motion.
Canadian communications major Research In Motion (RIM), owners of the BlackBerry brand of mobile phones, has assured the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) that it would sort out the BlackBerry tangle by initiating discussions between security agencies of Canada and India. The move comes in response to a government notice directing BlackBerry service providers to stop services by December 31, 2007.
Bharti Airtel and Vodafone, India's leading cellular service providers, in collaboration with Research In Motion, on Friday launched the new BlackBerry Pearl 8110 smartphone with built-in global positioning system in the Indian market.
Since the Blackberry provided additional data security capabilities, including data encryption and decryption, digital signatures and data authentication, the customers are using the handset for their bank transactions and other money-related matters.
Even as India's external affairs ministry has reportedly assured Canada that the Department of Telecommunications is trying to resolve the issue of a potential threat to India's security posed by BlackBerry phones, Research in Motion, the makers of the phones, said it is committed to addressing all aspects of the issue.
Blackberry enables subscribers to receive and send e-mails in the form of SMS through mobile phones. The service has come under official scanner, as communication sent using it is routed through servers located abroad and cannot be intercepted by security agencies in New Delhi. The officials did not name the company that has offered to help monitor Blackberry content, but sources said there are a few Swiss and Canadian companies who have developed software offering security t
The government has issued a stern warning to telecom companies to put the required security system for Blackberry services in place within 15 days or stop the services. The directive has been issued to the respective service providers to work out with officials of Blackberry licensor Research in Motion (RIM) of Canada to provide full-proof security system in the country. Currently, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar, BPL Mobile and Reliance are offering this premium service.
To be fair, with the increasing terrorist threats, India's concern may not be unique. The United States, for instance, has always had the reputation of not allowing any email service provider to operate without it being able to break the encrypted code.
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Microsoft Corporation will expand the availability of its corporate instant messaging software to mobile devices and cell phones, the world's largest software maker said on Monday.
US-based Seven Networks is to acquire European rival Smartner as it vies to mount a challenge to BlackBerry maker Research in Motion in the fast-growing wireless email software market and boost its IPO prospects.
BlackBerry has signed a letter of intent agreement under which a consortium to be led by Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited has offered to acquire the company subject to due diligence, it said in a statement.
The company hopes to revive its fortune with the move
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