Govt sets Aug 31 as deadline for RIM's solution

The government has set August 31 as the deadline for Research In Motion to come up with a solution after high-level talks in India today to decide on possible suspension of encrypted BlackBerry services over national security worries ended "inconclusively". If the Canadian company does not come up with a solution its services are likely to be banned in the country.

The meeting between the home ministry and the intelligence agency did not come to a decision on whether to halt BlackBerry's services if the device's makers failed to address security concerns, a home ministry official .

"The meeting was inconclusive. No decision has been taken and we will hold further talks soon," the official, who declined to be named, said.


India is one of several emerging-market countries which have asked BlackBerry's Canadian manufacturers, Research in Motion (RIM), to allow scrutiny of encrypted email and instant message traffic.

Government officials said RIM was not present at the meeting, which was also attended by state-run telecom operator BSNL, telecommunications department officials and government security technology specialists.

But a top RIM executive, Robert Crow, who is vice president for industry and government relations, paid what a government official described as a "courtesy" call on Home Minister P Chidambaram.

India is the world's fastest-expanding cellular market and also one of RIM's key growth areas where it has one million BlackBerry customers.

New Delhi, battling insurgencies from Muslim-majority Kashmir in the northwest to the far-flung northeast, has raised fears encrypted BlackBerry services could be used by militants to communicate.

Islamic militants used mobile and satellite phones to coordinate the Mumbai attacks in 2008 that left 166 people dead.

The New Delhi meeting came after Saudi Arabia on Tuesday postponed indefinitely a deadline for a BlackBerry ban as the ultra-conservative Muslim country reported progress in efforts to find a solution.

The United Arab Emirates has said it will ban BlackBerry messenger, email and web browsing from October 11 for security reasons.

Home ministry officials have said India could press for its own deadline for RIM to provide access to encrypted data transmitted via the handset.

The government has previously warned it would allow telecom operators to offer only services which can be intercepted by the security agencies.

BSNL, government-run MTNL and a host of private telecom providers such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone offer BlackBerry services and have the legal responsibility in India to ensure security agencies can access all services.

Any suspension would likely leave BlackBerry users with the ability only to telephone and browse the Internet.

Officials have suggested creation of an India-based proxy server which would allow them to monitor data transmitted by BlackBerry devices.

Officials have complained that the encrypted messaging system operated by RIM prevents them from monitoring the content.

But RIM says it cannot open up its technology to Indian authorities. It has also noted that all corporate wireless message services have strong encryption, not just BlackBerry.