While India is still negotiating with RIM regarding Blackberry services and officials have alredy sent a formal notice to mobile operators which would force them to ensure that security
agencies can monitor Blackberry messages by the end of this month, negotiations in the United Arab Emirates are going much smoother. The UAE was among the first countries to think about banning Blackberry services such as e-mail, instant messaging and web browsing. The country’s Telecommunication Regulatory Authority announced on August 1 this year that the previously mentioned services would be banned for failing to comply with the country’s regulations. Days after this announcement, Saudi Arabia followed the lead and also announced it would be banning certain Blackberry services.
Compared to other countries, the UAE is planning to enforce the ban mid-October this year, which means that RIM is left with plenty of time to talk things through, negotiate and come up with a solution. It also looks like the Canadian handset maker has made progress in talks with the UAE, according to an official who seemed to believe that the ban can be avoided.
We are in talks with Research in Motion (RIM) and we are making good progress and hopefully we will be able to reach conclusions in the near future,” Yousef al-Otaiba, the UAE’s ambassador to the United States, was quoted as saying in Wednesday’s Khaleej Times daily.
Otaibi was also asked whether these negotiations could lead to the suspension of the ban that the United Arab Emirates’ regulator announced for October 11. He answered “I hope so.” This is a good sign for RIM as well as the 500,000 subscribers to Blackberry services in the UAE. Upon the initial announcement, the telecoms regulator mentioned that its decision was final. But as the UAE’s ambassador to the United States has revealed, officials are most likely still willing to negotiate and find a solution.
Neighboring Saudi Arabia has more than 700,000 users. On August 6 Blackberry services were halted for several hours. The suspension was finally lifted right after the country’s regulator announced that progress was made in finding a solution for the claimed ‘security concerns’. While things seem to be good in Saudi Arabia and may turn out the same in the UAE, RIM is still having a hard time making peace with India, which represents the Canadian manufacturer’s largest growing market. India already has about 1.1 million subscribers and is pressuring RIM for access to the encrypted messaging service. RIM has until the end of the month to come up with a viable solution that will suit both the Indian officials and the company’s corporate customers, who valued the advanced security that Blackberry handsets and services had to offer.
