Raja's Blackberry Trail in 2008

Friday, April 25, 2008: India sees BlackBerry solution soon


NEW DELHI, INDIA: India expects to reach a solution with Research in Motion (RIM) over BlackBerry services in India in a couple of weeks, Telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja said on Friday.

"The crux is being resolved. In a couple of weeks it will be over," Raja told reporters.

India had asked telecom firms not to provide certain BlackBerry services until monitoring systems are in place. It had also written to Research In Motion asking it to install servers in India.

The move came after security agencies raised concerns the service posed a risk as emails sent using it could not be traced or intercepted.



Tuesday, May 20, 2008: RIM to resolve BlackBerry issue in 2 months

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA: Research in Motion is expected to resolve in two months Indian security concerns about its BlackBerry wireless e-mail device, minister for Communications and Information Technology Andimuthu Raja said on Tuesday.

The minister also said India would announce its policy on third generation mobile network services in two months. He was speaking on the sidelines of a tech conference in the Malaysian capital.


Wednesday, July 02, 2008: No threat from BlackBerry, says Govt

NEW DELHI, INDIA: India's telecom secretary Siddharth Behura today said BlackBerry service does not any sort of pose security threats to the country.

Security agencies had earlier raised concern that data send through BlackBerry could be intercepted by hostile countries or terrorists, which could harm India's interests.

They wanted to decode and intercept data send through BlackBerry services. It is not immediately known whether security agencies have changed their views on BlackBerry service. They had insisted that content send through BlackBerry should not be routed through foreign countries.

Behrua also said that any telecom service provider could offer BlackBerry service. “There is no permission needed for starting value added services," he told reporters, adding that the government has not banned anyone from providing the service.

With the telecom secretary's statement, the deck has been cleared for BlackBerry services in India. Canada-based Research In Motion (RIM), the makers of BlackBerry, has been lobbying hard to clear the security concerns over the service.

RIM had earlier expressed its inability to shift servers to India or to enable Indian security agencies to decode content transferred through BlackBerry.