No Involvement of US in the India-RIM Clash over BlackBerry Smartphone

Indian government has set up an August 31 deadline for RIM to allow the security agencies to have access to the encrypted communication provided by the BlackBerry smartphones in the country. UAE and Saudi Arabia have already banned BlackBerry’s instant messaging services on security ground.

Now, if RIM fails to meet the deadline set up by Indian government then the e-mail and instant messaging services of BlackBerry could be banned in the country.

The state department of United States has, however, revealed that the country would not be involved in the issue and RIM has to sort out the problem with the concern authority in India.

BlackBerry smartphone provides the users more secured communication which is different from that of others and it is believed that terrorists can use its e-mail and instant messaging services in their activities. In fact, it is suspected that terrorists used these BlackBerry services in the Mumbai Terror attack in 2008.

That is why, Indian government wants RIM to allow the security agencies in the country to decrypt the BlackBerry communications for security measures.

There are around 1 million BlackBerry users in the country and India has become BlackBerry’s fastest growing market. Naturally, RIM would like to sort out the problem as soon as possible. The good thing is that the Canada-based company has successfully sorted out the problem with the officials of Saudi Arab.

BlackBerry Facing Ban in India

Indian government could ban the email and instant messaging services of BlackBerry smartphones in the country unless its manufacturer, Research in Motion (RIM), allows the security agencies to have access to the dada transmitted through the phones.

Indian home ministry has already given RIM an August 31 deadline to fulfill the government requirement. India is not the only country concerned with the BlackBerry smartphone on security ground. In fact, the countries like United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have already been in talks with RIM on this issue.

The kind of data protection services RIM provides to the BlackBerry users is different from other mobile phone devices. BlackBerry smartphones encrypt data transmitted by the users and its data processing channel is also different from others.

So, it is claimed that RIM’s BlackBerry phones are being used in terrorist activities. Reports suggest that the terrorists involved in the Mumbai terrorist attack in 2008 also used BlackBerry services.

High officials of Indian government had a closed door meeting discussing the possible security threat posed by BlackBerry smartphones on Thursday. Officials of BSNL, a state-run telecom operator, were also present in the meeting.

A ban on BlackBerry’s email and instant messaging services would be a blow to the company as the number of BlackBerry users in India is in between 0.7 to 1 million. Moreover, India is also RIM’s fastest-growing market at the moment.

RIM has not said anything on the government decision, but it is expected that the Canadian company would soon contact the concerned authority in the country on this issue.