RIM says it is unable to give India access to BlackBerry messages

Paul Mah — Wed, 28 May 2008 06:06:54 -0400

Research In Motion has finally told the Indian government the truth about its BlackBerry devices--that their design automatically precludes any interception of useful data. If you recall, the Indian government previously demanded that it be made privy to the content of encrypted data transmitted to BlackBerry smartphones. Enterprise customers using RIM's BlackBerry Enterprise Server employ a symmetric key design, of which nobody else has a copy.

RIM's willingness to continue "working on a solution" likely is due to the roughly 400,000 BlackBerry users in India. If the threatened shutdown is put into effect, the loss of these subscribers would significantly dent RIM's active base. In a statement, RIM pointed out that wireless encryption is increasingly being made mandatory for enterprise e-mail and is not unique to BlackBerry devices.

For more on the BlackBerry in India:
- check out this Electronista article

Indian Government

RIM says it is unable to give India access to BlackBerry messages