UAE Restrictions Will Hit All Wireless Providers, Says RIM

Potential changes to wireless data services for very small business in the United Arab Emirates will affect the entire industry and not just BlackBerry services, Research In Motion said Saturday.

The company said that it was not being singled out by the telecom regulator, amidst reports that the regulator plans to curb BlackBerry enterprise services to business with fewer than 20 mobile subscriptions.

The UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has confirmed to RIM that any potential policy regarding enterprise services in the UAE would be an industry-wide policy, not specific to BlackBerry, applying equally to all enterprise solution providers and with the intent of avoiding any impact on legitimate enterprise customers, RIM said in a statement.

RIM's statement follows a report last week in The National, a newspaper in Abu Dhabi, that said the TRA had instructed local operator, Etisalat, that very small companies will have their BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) accounts terminated at the end of the month. Such customers would be able to move to BlackBerry Internet Service, which does not rely on private servers, the newspaper said.

The TRA did not return calls asking for comment.

The proposed rule comes at a time when some governments in the Middle East are facing protest movements that use online communications and social networks for planing and coordination. By imposing such a rule, the UAE may want higher control on the kind of users who will have access to encrypted services, analysts said.

The TRA said in a statement on Saturday that it confirms the continuation of all Blackberry services in the UAE to both individuals and to business customers, including BlackBerry messenger, BlackBerry email and BlackBerry browsing. It said it would clarify to operators any confusion with regard to TRA regulations, without providing the context for the announcement.

A number of countries, including India, are attempting to get access to corporate mail on BES. India holds that its security rules allow law enforcement agencies access to all communications when required. RIM has said that it is not technically feasible for it to provide access to BES communications, as the encryption keys are with customers. It has however offered solutions to the Indian government for lawful access to its other services.

John Ribeiro covers outsourcing and general technology breaking news from India for The IDG News Service. Follow John on Twitter at @Johnribeiro. John's e-mail address isjohn_ribeiro@idg.com.

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'RIM offers data tapping at India office'

: Blackberry maker Research in Motion , which had been slapped with a January 31 deadline to provide a 'final solution' for lawful interception of services offered on its handsets , has offered to install a network data analysis system at its premises in India, to end the three-year standoff between the Canadian company and security agencies here.

The home ministry has suggested that the Canadian company set up this NDAS infrastructure that has the capabilities to automatically decode all data flowing on RIM's network, and also ensure that intercepted and decoded information will not travel outside the country, at the premises of mobile phone companies.

In an internal note reviewed by ET, the home ministry said its opposition towards RIM setting up the network data analysis system at its own premises here stemmed from a security perspective.

Earlier this month, RIM had offered a cloud-based solution to India's home ministry , but the latter then sought changes after it was found that intercepted and decoded data was flowing via the internet from the Canadian company's servers in Europe to that of mobile networks here.

"In the final solution proposed by RIM, the decoding will be automatic. Intercepted and decoded data will not travel out of India. RIM has proposed to install NDAS in India. In the final solution, intercepted and decoded data will travel between service providers and RIM India ," adds the home ministry note issued by its deputy director Arvind Kumar.

This marks a significant climbdown for the Canadian company, which had previously resisted pressure from India's home ministry, to install servers here, while also maintaining that it did not have any master key to intercept any BlackBerry communication.

The stakes are big for the Canadian smartphone maker, especially since India is one of its fastest growing markets. Super secure corporate email has been RIM's unique selling point, which has made the BlackBerry service an instant hit with high-flier executives. Today, India has over a million BlackBerry users although less than 4 lakh subscribe to its email and messenger service.

In October, the government ordered RIM to come up with a solution by January 2011-end that would give the country's intelligence agencies complete access to all services offered on its handsets.

It had earlier asked RIM to hand over the encryption keys and codes of its corporate mail and messaging services to the Indian security establishment by October 31. The extension to January-end 2011 was given since RIM had sought a timeframe of 23 weeks in August to provide a solution for lawful access 'that would not involve overseas data path'.