RIM successfully negotiates another extension till January 2011
12 Oct 2010
BlackBerry smartphone maker Research In Motion (RIM) has been given yet another extension till 31 January 2011 by the Indian government to come out with a permanent solution to avert a ban on its services.
The centre has extended the deadline to the Canadian company from end October 2010 by another 90 days to come up with a final solution that will give the country's security agencies unfettered access to all services offered on the BlackBerry.
The extension was given despite RIM having categorically told the government that it neither has the technical solution to intercept BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Service) data, or it can make one available to the government.
After having successfully dodged the issue in India for over three years, it appears that the company that is now labelled as ''Resistance In Motion'', has got the reprieve due to the ongoing Commonwealth Games and the scheduled visit by the US President Barack Obama to India in November.
RIM has offered manual access to its Messenger service as an interim solution and has now promised to give full automated access by 1 January 2010 by installing a server in India, which will allow the government real-time monitoring of messages sent via the BlackBerry.
The extension will also enable mobile phone operators across 22 telecom circles to upgrade the Legal Intercept and Monitoring facilities software to integrate the solution provided by RIM.
Security agencies, home ministry and the telecom department have given the green light for the solutions offered by RIM for its messenger service and have agreed to the 31 January 2011 timeline, according to a report today from The Economic Times.
But it is yet not clear what solutions, if any, would RIM provide to intercept the BlackBerry Enterprise Service.