BSNL to launch BlackBerry service

State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) today said it will launch its BlackBerry services by next month.

“We have got all the approvals...And will launch BlackBerry services by April,” BSNL Chairman and Managing Director Kuldeep Goyal told reporters on the sidelines of the programme ‘Convergence India’.

BlackBerry services had earlier come under scrutiny after Indian security agencies expressed concern that the data being transmitted through the device could not be intercepted due to the high encryption codes being used by the company.

Goyal clarified that monitoring 3G services has not been put on hold. “It is possible to monitor 3G services...It has not been put on hold,” he said.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had earlier asked the two state-owned telecom service providers — BSNL and MTNL — to stop providing 3G services till call-monitoring services are made available to the intelligence agencies.

3G services provide for high-speed data and video streaming.