UAE, Saudi Arabia suspend some Blackberry services

United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia said yesterday that they would suspend some of Blackberry services on concerns of national security risks, becoming the first countries to issue a ban on the popular smartphone made by Canada's Research In Motion (RIM).

The UAE regulator, TRA yesterday said that Blackberry Messenger, Blackberry E-mail and Blackberry Web-browsing services in the UAE will be suspended as of 11 October 2010, while the Saudi telecom regulator has asked local service provider to stop Blackberry Messenger service from this month.

The UAE suspension will hold until RIM is able to come with a solution to bring Blackberry services in the UAE in line with the country's telecommunications regulations.

Saudi Arabia's telecom regulator, the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) had sent a memo to local operators about the move against Blackberry service, but did not give a reason for the ban.

TRA said that both the country's telecommunications operators - Etisalat and Du - were informed of the decision and the notification was delivered with an instruction to ensure minimal consumer disruption in providing alternative services.

The introduction of Blackberry in the UAE in 2006 pre-dates the 2007 introduction of the UAE's Safety, Emergency and National Security legislation, which regulates Blackberry applications in the UAE.