India sets 31 August 2010 deadline for BlackBerry

The Indian telecom regulator has sent formal notices to all mobile operators saying that if they did not have systems in place to intercept and monitor BlackBerry's messenger and enterprise services by 31 August 2010, these services would be banned.
 
Three mobile operators including Tata Telesrvices have confirmed they had received letters from the department of telecommunications (DoT) to ensure that 'legal intervention' (LI) capability for BlackBerry's messenger and enterprise services are put in place by 31 August 2010.

By putting the onus on mobile operators, the Indian government seems to be showing its utter disgust with RIM, the maker of BlackBerry, after the Canadian company doggedly refused to abide by India telecom laws since 2008.

DoT has asked the mobile operators to inform RIM about the termination notice, "You may suitably communicate this to RIM, the providers of BlackBerry platform also."

The notice has come despite Robert Crow, RIM's vice president for industry, government and university Relations arrived in India last week to negotiate an amicable solution to a problem, which India has been seeking from the Ontario-based company since 2008. (See: BlackBerry phone services may get stuck over security concerns) 

In fact, the Indian government held several meetings with operators during 2008 asking them to work in tandem with RIM to ensure a full-proof security system for the service in India. (See: Blackberry service providers in India asked to ensure security measures) 

After the termination threat, RIM is now forced to address the security issues raised by India, which earlier, it had shown no inclination of addressing.

Last week, India declined the latest sops offered by RIM of providing certain information of the messages sent through BlackBerry such as the IP address of BlackBerry enterprise server and PIN and International Mobile Equipment Identity number (IEMI) of the BlackBerry handset.

According to various media reports, citing government source, RIM has now offered India limited access to BlackBerry messenger service by 1 September and full access by end November and wants to conduct negotiations regarding its enterprise services or corporate email.

Although RIM has addressed the same security concerns of some countries on the quiet, the company has always maintained that it has not provided anything unique to the government of any country and cannot accommodate any request for monitoring its services.