Possible extension for BlackBerry ban deadline imposed by Indian government

1st September, 2010 by adina
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BlackBerry producer Research in Motion could benefit from an extension of the August 31st deadline for granting access to messages. According to Reuters, such an extra time could be granted if the smartphone maker claims to have a solution to solve this problem and also asks for an extension. Currently, there is a battle between the Indian government and Research in Motion based on concerns over national security.

An anonymous source of the Indian government claimed that if RIM said to have a solution and asked for extra time it would be possible to get it. A final decision in this case was expected one day before the deadline.

The Indian official said that only a solution enabling lawful interception of services provided by BlackBerry would be accepted, to serve the interest of national security. The proposed solution would equally go through a series of trials and would have to satisfy the government’s technical experts.

Research in Motion has insisted that it had a firm position on security that would protect data as long as it was treated within the limits of the law and equally. The company also said that the current form of BlackBerry’s security method makes messages interception difficult. This is because encryption keys are only available for the sender and the recipient, while RIM cannot intercept the content of messages on its network.

In case the ban becomes effective, the costs for Research in Motion would reach 1.1 million Indian customers who would be unable to use BlackBerry’s messaging services and would steer them to other phone producers like Apple or Google.


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