DoT warning on Blackberry

Having come under scanner for security lapses in use of Blackberry services, the government has issued a stern warning to telecom companies to put the required security system in place within 15 days or stop the services.

Officials in the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) said a directive had been issued to the service providers to work with the officials of Blackberry licensor Research in Motion (RIM) of Canada to provide fool-proof security system.

If the services are stopped, over 400,000 users of Blackberry will not be able to use this premium service, which enables them to access e-mail in the form of SMS.

The DoT secretary recently said the government was keen to resolve the matter at the earliest. When contacted, a RIM spokesperson said they operate in more than 130 countries and respect the regulatory requirements of different governments. RIM does not comment on confidential regulatory matters or speculation on such matters in any given country, it said.

Telecom Minister A Raja had said that the security of the country was paramount and would not be sacrificed at any cost.

C-DoT, a technical wing of the DoT, has the monitoring capabilities provided the licensor puts the server (that will enable interception of contents of e-mails, if required) in India.

Currently, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar, BPL Mobile and Reliance Communications offer this premium service. According to sources, most high-end users of these companies have shifted to Blackberry services.

The controversy came to the fore after Tata Teleservices was denied permission to offer this value-added service by the Ministry of Home Affairs saying there was no provision for lawful interception of the service.

Tatas had then said that there should be a level-playing field.

Sources in DoT said Tata's application for permission to launch Blackberry services was still pending and might not be cleared till the matter was resolved.

It also pointed out that the DoT must verify whether the existing service providers took the government's permission to start services or they started on their own. There should be a proper investigation in the entire matter.

When contacted, operators said they were not aware of any such directive from the government.