India withdrew a threat Monday to ban BlackBerry services for at least two more months after the device’s maker, Research In Motion Ltd., said it would give security agencies greater access to corporate e-mail and instant messaging.
The Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement it would review the situation in 60 days after the Department of Telecommunications studies the feasibility of routing BlackBerry services through a server in India.
India wants greater access to encrypted corporate e-mails and instant messaging, though it remains unclear precisely what concessions Research In Motion agreed to in order to avert the ban.
About 1 million BlackBerry users would have been affected in India.
“RIM have made certain proposals for lawful access by law enforcement agencies and these would be operationalized immediately. The feasibility of the solutions offered would be assessed thereafter,” the ministry said.
Home Secretary G.K. Pillai met officials from the Department of Telecommunications, the Intelligence Bureau and the National Technical Research Organization — a cyber intelligence organization — on Monday to discuss BlackBerry security issues, Home Ministry spokesman Onkar Kedia said.
Research In Motion, a Canadian company, has been reluctant to agree to New Delhi’s demands for real-time access to encrypted corporate e-mail, saying previously it is technically impossible to provide.
The decision by Nokia Corp. — Research In Motion’s major competitor in India — to install a server in the country to facilitate government monitoring may have weakened RIM’s bargaining position. Nokia India Managing Director D. Shivakumar told reporters Monday the company will install a server in India in November to ensure government access to data.
RIM is facing widespread concern over its strong data encryption, which is beloved by corporate customers eager to guard secrets, but troublesome for some governments in the Middle East and Asia that worry it could be used by militants to avoid…