India Hopes to Resolve BlackBerry Issue Soon
The Indian government hopes to resolve in the next few days the issue of local security agencies monitoring Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry services, the junior communications minister said Friday.
Indian officials and RIM (RIMM) executives are in talks after the government set an Aug. 31 deadline for the Canadian smartphone maker to come up with a solution to allow monitoring of its BlackBerry corporate email and messaging services. India–along with other countries including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates–fears terrorists may use BlackBerry’s heavily encrypted network.
“The discussions are ongoing, we are not in the business of shutting down services,” Sachin Pilot, also the country’s junior information technology minister, told reporters on the sidelines of an industry conference.
Home Secretary G.K. Pillai will get a report Saturday following another round of meetings between RIM and the federal home ministry later Friday. Pillai will hold an internal home ministry meeting Monday to take a final decision based on the report.
On the Indian side, the ongoing meetings are being attended by officials from the Intelligence Bureau and the National Technical Research Organisation, a government body that deals with technology-related security concerns.
