New Delhi: The government will reach a final decision on whether to partially ban Blackberry services on Monday. The decision is expected after Home Minister P Chidambaram meets BlackBerry manufacturer Research in Motion (RIM) and examines its final offer.
The meeting will consider a technical report prepared after two days of talks last week between RIM officials and Indian security agencies. The report, sources said, contains some suggestions on how a secure email on BlackBerry may be accessed.
Meanwhile, the Canadian government has backed Waterloo-based RIM and has written to Indian authorities stressing that disruption of BlackBerry services is not a viable solution and that the security concerns are not BlackBerry specific.
According to sources, the Indian government could extend the August 31 deadline if RIM puts forward a concrete solution to grant security agencies access of its secure email and messenger services.
BlackBerry's troubles in India, which could cut it out from one of the world's fastest growing mobile phone markets, are the latest in the firm's global headaches as governments worry its encrypted services could be used for activities from terrorism to peddling pornography.
A shutdown would affect about 1 million users in India out of a total 41 million BlackBerry users worldwide, allowing them to use the devices only for calls and Internet browsing.
RIM uses powerful codes to scramble, or encrypt, email messages as they travel between a BlackBerry device and a computer known as a BlackBerry Enterprise Server that is designed to secure those emails.
RIM has said BlackBerry security is based on a system where the customers create their own key and the company neither has a master key nor any "back door" to allow RIM or any third party to gain access to crucial corporate data.
RIM said singling out BlackBerry for blocking would be counter-productive for India, as it would limit the efficiency and productivity of local firms.
(With inputs from agencies)
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