No ban on Blackberry services: Govt

Communications minister A Raja ruled out banning Blackberry services, but top officials in the department of telecommunications (DoT) made it clear that the government will now scrutinise all push-mail services, bringing in another 200,000 users under its ambit. Raja was speaking at a function in Delhi.

Almost all telecom players in the country offer push-mail services "� including Reliance Communications, BPL Mobile and Vodafone-Essar "� which are like the Blackberry services but with different brands. These devices work on Symbian and Microsoft operating systems, while Blackberry uses its patented platform.

Blackberry services, which have over 400,000 users in India, are provided by Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar and Reliance Communications.

Confirming the move, a senior DoT official said, "Most push-mail services provided by telecom operators in the country host their servers outside the country and the department would revisit the norms under which these operators are providing their services."

Meanwhile, representatives of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), who met the Department of Telecom (DoT) Secretary Siddhartha Behura today, were asked to reason with Research-in-Motion, the Canadian company that owns the Blackberry technology, to allow legal interception of data.

Said a senior COAI member: "They assured us that there was no question of banning Blackberry services from March-end, but we were asked to put pressure on RIM to comply with security rules. We have assured them that we will do so."

The controversy over Blackberry services arose after Tata Teleservices was denied permission by the home affairs ministry to launch services owing to security concerns even while other operators were offering the service.

DoT, however, pointed out that due to home ministry objections it had already informed all operators to stop Blackberry services by the end of December.

However, responding to requests, operators were given a three-month extension, which ends in March.