Saudi Arabia postpones BlackBerry ban indefinitely.
Some hints of hope for Research In Motion (RIM), the maker of the popular BlackBerry smartphone, in its aspirations of growth outside of North America.
AFP reported that Saudi Arabia has postponed indefinitely a BlackBerry ban after a deadline passed for finding a solution allowing authorities to monitor its encrypted messages. The state news agency SPA reported that the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) had announced that BlackBerry messenger services would remain online, due to progress in efforts to find a solution to the concerns.
Among the reported solutions is the installation of a local server accessible to Saudi authorities, instead of the data going directly to RIM’s Canadian servers. Local daily Okaz on Monday quoted a technical source at one of the monarchy’s three mobile phone companies as saying the tests on the server and requested programmes have been successful.
More than 700,000 Saudis subscribe to BlackBerry, with most reportedly purchasing the smartphone for personal use.
The telecoms regulator had previously ordered mobile operators to block the BlackBerry feature from Friday last week or face a 1.3-million-dollar fine, after similar moves by other Arab nations. United Arab Emirates had announced that it would ban BlackBerry messenger, email and web browsing from October 11, over concerns that the encrypted communications on BlackBerry smartphones could not be monitored by the government for criminal and terrorist activities.
The UAE’s telecoms regulator said last week that it remained open to discussions to find a “regulatory-compliant solution,” possibly a resolution based on enabling monitoring.
Outside the Arab world, India is mulling a ban and Indonesia is not ruling out the option, although on Thursday it denied the world’s largest Muslim nation was considering a suspension of BlackBerry services.
India plans to set a deadline later this week for operators to allow security agencies access to encrypted BlackBerry messages or face disconnection, the Hindustan Times quoted a home ministry official as saying Tuesday.
Tags: BlackBerry, RIM, smartphone