Aug. 12: A high-level meeting of security agencies and telecom department on Thursday helped the government to finalise its stand on BlackBerry, which has been reluctant to address the Indian security concerns.
The security agencies have repeatedly raised concerns about terrorists using the BlackBerry service, whose encryption is inaccessible to Indian security agencies, to plot terror attacks in the country.
After the meeting, the Union home secretary, Mr G.K. Pillai, informed the telecom secretary, Mr P.J. Thomas, that encrypted Black-Berry email and instant messaging services will be shut down if the Canadian maker does not address Indian security concerns by August 31.
Ahead of the meeting, a top official of RIM also made a courtesy call on Union home minister P. Chidambaram. India is one of RIM’s fastest growing markets. Bharti Airtel and Vodafone India are the largest providers of BlackBerry services in India, the world’s fastest growing mobile phone market. A shutdown would affect one million of the smartphone’s 41 million users.
In a matter of a few weeks, the BlackBerry device — long the darling of the world’s CEOs and politicians, including United States President, Mr Barack Obama — has become a target for its sealed email and messaging services with governments around the world.
The UAE had recently banned BlackBerry services. Sources said that since telecom service providers like Airtel, Vodafone, Re-liance Communication, the Tatas and the government-run BSNL and MTNL are offering BlackBerry services, it is the responsibility of these operators to ensure that the security agencies get access to all services they offer.