Centre asks telecom firms for access plan
The government has fixed March 31 as deadline for all telecom operators to submit plans for giving “access” to their services, including popular BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) of Research in Motion (RIM), to security agencies.
The home ministry has asked the department of telecom (DoT) to ensure that all telecom operators submit list of services which can be given “access” to security agencies by the end of this month . Government sources said that only those services will be allowed to function where facilities for interception are provided. The order will cover all service providers, including RIM, Skype and others.
“The onus is on the service providers to put in place a mechanism where all their services can be accessed by security agencies,” an official said. RIM, which offers the BlackBerry services through eight operators, has been saying that it cannot provide access to the popular BES as it does not possess any key and the security architecture is the same around the world. “If they cannot give access, they have to put off their services in India,” the official added.
There are over one million BlackBerry subscribers in India and the number is growing fast. By March 31, the Centre will also put in place a security architecture for the telecom sector through which the government could put in a new facility to deposit open software and new testing facility in certain forms.
Indian security agencies have been demanding access to all BlackBerry services as part of efforts to fight militancy and security threats over the Internet.
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