Mobile operators bow to diktat on Blackberry

The Indian government, unable to bully Canadian Blackberry maker Research In Motion (RIM) into revealing its codes to enable interception of data, has made local telecom operators fall in line and do the needful.

Major telecom companies in the country have agreed to provide real time intercept facilities for Blackberry smart phones at a meeting today – 31 December was the deadline set by the Department of Telecommunications for them to fall in line. RIM has provided enough data for this.

After initial reluctance from all major telecom service providers, including Bharti Airtel and Tata Infocom, they have fallen in line and installed the software for providing real time interception of all facilities to security agencies.

There are more than one million Blackberry users in India. RIM had been asked to provide resolution and web-browsing requirements in respect of Blackberry Internet Service (BIS) in consultation with the telecom service providers and demands for 'lawful' interception.

The manufacturer has agreed to place a server in Mumbai for this purpose. However, RIM continues to deny access to the Blackberry Enterprise Server.

In a recent statement, the Blackberry manufacturer said, "We are pleased to inform you that RIM has now delivered a solution that enables India's wireless carriers to address their lawful access requirements for our consumer messaging services, which include Blackberry Messenger (BBM) and Blackberry Internet Service (BIS) email.

"The lawful access capability now available to RIM's carrier partners meets the standard required by the government of India for all consumer messaging services offered in the Indian marketplace. We also wish to underscore, once again, that this enablement of lawful access does not extend to."