We are looking at third party vendors: A Raja

Raja who was speaking the sidelines of the launch of a web portal by the Government in Delhi today said, "They (Research in Motion, providers of Blackberry service) are offering some solutions, however not withstanding we are are looking at  solutions being provided by other companies".   

Reiterating his stand that the service will not be banned Raja added, "Blackberry cannot be thrown out and you cannot ignore it, but the question is how to keep this service, while taking care of security measures at the same time. We feel that security measures can be taken with wider consultations".

The BlackBerry case shot into the limelight in December after the government rejected an application from Tata Teleservices to operate the service, citing concerns raised by Indian security agencies. Currently, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar, BPL Mobile and Reliance Communications offer this premium service.

Meanwhile, the much awaited guidelines for the pricing and allocation process for 3G and Wimax spectrum are expected to be announced within a week.

Raja said, "Broad guidelines have been devised, I need some formal consultation with the finance ministry on the issue after that the guidelines will be sent to the Telecom Commission and I expect the norms to be announced within a week".

Raja further said that consultations with the finance ministry were necessary for the final notification of the guidelines. "Once it will be finalised by the finance ministry then it will ultimately go to the Telecom Commission," he said. The approval is necessary because the finance ministry is represented in the Telecom Commission (the policy making arm of the department of telecom), he added.