Govt bans Nokia pushmail, seeks legal monitoring system

In a setback to mobile handset manufacturer Nokia, the government has asked telecom service providers to bar the company’s proposed pushmail or powermail service till it puts in place a legal monitoring system.

“In view of the Intelligence Bureau’s report, Department of Telecommunications is requested to advice the Telecom Service Providers not to launch Nokia’s proposed pushmail/powermail service without putting in place monitoring facilities to the satisfaction of the LEAs,” Ministry of Home Affairs said in a communication to Department of Telecom. Messaging services from Nokia involve push email for companies and consumers and enables mobile users with compatible Nokia cellphones to manage multiple email accounts from widely used email services like Yahoo!, Gmail, Rediff to Sify.

The communique came at a time when Blackberry services are under the government’s wrath due to the security related issue for not providing a solution to intercept its Enterprise mail services.

The government had asked BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion (RIM) to come out with a satisfactory solution to intercept its Enterprise mail services by March 31, which has been already expired.