India to get BlackBerry access from RIM
The Indian government disclosed that Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) has given Indian authorities access to BlackBerry e-mail and instant messenger correspondence. This is on the eve of an August 31 deadline for RIM to do so or face a ban on BlackBerry services in India. RIM first agreed to allow monitoring of e-mail on BlackBerry handsets by the Indian government in 2008.
Other countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have also threatened to shut off BlackBerry services unless RIM provide access to its encrypted client data. These countries are worried the secure comms provided by BlackBerry devices could be exploited by terrorists such as those in the 2008 Mumbai attacks and insurgents from Kashmir and Assam. It could also help criminals evade authorities monitoring their comms for illegal activities.
Nokia Oyj, the biggest mobile-phone maker in the world, has agreed to set up servers in India by Nov 5, to allow security agencies to monitor its customers’ e-mail.
India is also exploring how to track voice-over-Internet protocol services provided by companies like Skype and Google.
RIM’s proposal to placate India would be at the expense of legitimate corporate customers whose privacy will be compromised.
Roger Entner, an analyst with IAG Research Inc. told Bloomberg that in the U.S., the Federal Bureau of Investigation can monitor the mobile e-mail of particular people with authority from a judge, as they do in wiretapping phone calls. American officials would go to a company for access to an employee’s messages or to an Internet service provider for non-corporate e-mail.
According to Bloomberg, India accounts for about 2 percent of RIM’s 46 million customers worldwide. Mike Abamsky, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets in Toronto, puts the number to about 1.1 million. As of June, India had 636 million mobile-phone subscribers, second only to China’s 805 million.
Romal Shetty, executive director of the telecommunications division at KPMG’s Indian unit, opined that “India as a market is small today for BlackBerry phones but the opportunity space for RIM is very, very large. They can’t walk away from a market like India. It’s not something anybody can afford to do.”
India’s telecommunications department will test RIM’s proposal for 60 days to see whether it allows security agencies to tap its messenger and corporate e-mail services.
