India's government has blocked an application by Tata Teleservices to offer BlackBerry services until the ongoing argument about how the local security services can intercept emails sent via BlackBerry's servers in Canada.
"Keeping in view of the security implication involved, the licensee (company) is directed not to connect or provide or run the Blackberry e-mail and mobile messenger services unless the required monitoring system to the satisfaction of the security agencies are in place and the master key and algorithm are deposited with the licensor," DoT said in a letter to Tata.
"...Non compliance of instructions by any other operator in breach of terms and conditions of the licence cannot be a valid ground for according permission to offer Blackberry services," DoT said.
Other operators have previously been granted clearance - but this was before the government seemed to become aware of its problems with monitoring the emails. Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance Communications and BPL all offer the BlackBerry in India.
It is presumed that once the argument about email monitoring is overcome, then Tata will get its license.
India's Information Technology Act of 2000 grants the security services the right to intercept electronic communications - but as it cannot be enforced in Canada, there has been concerns that BlackBerry emails and texts would be impossible to monitor. Although it is possible to put "sniffers" inside the network gateways to record information sent to the BlackBerry servers, the information is encrypted and the security services would need access to the encryption keys to be able to read them.
Posted to the site on 23rd April 2008
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/30724.php