BlackBerry reports progress in talks with UAE

The Canadian manufacturers of BlackBerry mobile phone have made progress in negotiations with the UAE to avert suspension of the handset services next month, according to a senior company official.

Jim Balsillie, co-CEO at Research In Motion (RIM), said his company had been involved in talks with the governments of the UAE and India over their demands to have access to BlackBerry  messages, e mail and other services.

But a UAE newspaper said on Sunday mobile phone operators in the country have not received any notification from the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) not to suspend BlackBerry services on October 11.

"On the topic of lawful access, RIM is continuing discussions with governments and carriers in India and the UAE, and they believe we have made good progress in those discussions,” Balsillie told Associated Press on Saturday.

“The details of such discussions are, of course, confidential but I am optimistic that a positive and constructive outcome can be achieved that addresses the regulatory requirements of government and the security and privacy needs of corporations and consumers…. I will reiterate that RIM continues to engage in constructive discussions in the matter and RIM has consistently and publicly communicated its principles in dealing with the matter.”

He said RIM has made clear that it would respect government needs and “fully” cooperate to comply with lawful requirements on an industry standard basis.

“But we cannot compromise the security architecture of the BlackBerry enterprise solution….the company utilizes end-to-end encryption and RIM simply has no ability to read the encrypted information. RIM has no master key or backdoor key to allow access, and the location of RIM's infrastructure has no impact on the security architecture,” Balsillie added.

He stressed that end-to-end encryption is a fundamental part of the system design, adding that RIM knows it is a fundamentally important security feature for its enterprise customers around the world since they legitimately need to protect their confidential corporate information.

“And this is a core underpinning of why we have over 250,000 BlackBerry enterprise servers installed and operational around the world today."

Etisalat and du, the UAE’s sole mobile phone service providers, have said they would halt BlackBerry email, messaging and web surfing services on October 11, citing security concerns by authorities for the decision.

Saudi Arabia, the largest Arab economy, briefly suspended such services last month before reportedly reaching initial agreement with RIM. Other countries in the region are believed to be locked in discussions with RIM.

According to the semi official Arabic language daily Al Ittihad, TRA confirmed that it was conducting negotiations with Blackberry makers to ensure its services will be compatible with the UAE’s legislations.

“TRA refused to elaborate on the outcome of the negotiations…sources at etisalat and du said the two companies affirmed that they have not received any notification from TRA requesting them to continue BlackBerry services after October 11…both companies said they are abiding by TRA’s decision.”
 

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.