More RIM Problems: India Wants Access
India Warns It May Block BlackBerry Traffic
The Indian government said Thursday that it would block encrypted BlackBerry corporate e-mail and messenger services if wireless companies did not enable law enforcement authorities to monitor those messages by the end of the month.
The ultimatum suggested that Indian officials had reached an impasse after weeks of negotiations with Research In Motion, the Canadian company that makes and provides services for the popular hand-held devices. India would become the second country in recent weeks to restrict BlackBerry services. The United Arab Emirates announced last week that it would begin blocking services in October.
“If a technical solution is not provided by 31st August, 2010, the government will review the position and take steps to block these two services from the network,” the Home Ministry, the Indian equivalent of the United States Department of Justice, said in a statement.
Losing access to the wireless market in India would be far more significant for R.I.M. than losing the ability to provide service in the United Arab Emirates. India is one of the world’s fastest-growing wireless markets, and it already has an estimated one million BlackBerry users. Some use R.I.M.’s consumer e-mail service, which the government said it had no problem with because it can already monitor those messages.
Every repressive government in the world, and now some semi-repressive ones, are lining up and demanding that RIM give them full access to encrypted communications.
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