Deadline on BlackBerry’s enterprise email stands firm

News agency reports On February 1, 2011, said that the Government planned to stand firm on its deadline on the interception of BlackBerry’s enterprise email. This move could have a huge impact on the handset maker as their primary user-base still remains entrenched in the business community, where the phone has largely been adopted on the basis of security and productivity. The brand has in recent times been trying to reposition its image as a general smartphone, which also happens to offer these services.
Security agencies in India have been demanding access to all BlackBerry services for a long time now. They feel the secured email services could be used by terrorists, whose communications through other mediums is more easily monitored.

Earlier this month, RIM had said that it had delivered the technology to monitor contents on its messenger service (BBM) and had asked the Government to issue a directive to the operators to connect to its new automated service.

This new service will automatically render lawfully intercepted BlackBerry Messenger messages in a format readable by Indian agencies.
Noting that a decision would be taken soon on whether to allow the enterprise mail or not, Home Minister P Chidambaram said that he expected Research-in-Motion (RIM) to find a solution.
The BlackBerry had been given time till February 1, 2011 to give a solution to the real time interception of its enterprise mail, but sources indicated that it could be extended by another fortnight or a month.
The comments from the Home Minister came in the backdrop of BlackBerry makers saying that providing solution to access its enterprise mail service was “not possible” and asserting that the issue was not unique to them and had to be dealt at the industry level.
“There is no possibility of us providing any kind of a solution. There is no solution, there are no keys to be handed... It’s not possible to do so because the keys of the service are in possession of the corporate enterprises,” said Robert E Crow, RIM Vice-President, Industry, Government and University Relations, to IANS.