Business | Telecoms
BlackBerry services will continue beyond October 11- TRA
BlackBerry services in the UAE will continue beyond October 11, Telecom Regulatory Authority has said, reports WAM
- By Nadia Saleem, Staff Reporter
- Published: 09:34 October 8, 2010
- Image Credit: AP
- BlackBerry's main advantage over competitors is that it runs its own operating network, allowing it to keep user data secure.
Dubai: BlackBerry services are now compliant with the UAE's regulatory framework and will not be suspended on October 11, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) said Friday.
"All BlackBerry services in the UAE will continue to operate as normal and no suspension of service will occur on October 11, 2010," it said in a statement.
TRA said that it reached the decision after "positive engagement and collaboration" with the manufacturer of the smartphone, Research In Motion (RIM), without revealing details of the agreement.
Data servers
A security expert based in Dubai said on condition of anonymity that resolution of the dispute "most likely" followed an agreement to place data servers within the UAE, allowing local authorities to access information.
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"The whole point of placing servers in the country is that legal interception is done locally by police, CID or state security, if they want to access data of specific individuals," he said.
He said that technology provides a "slight window of opportunity" to get access to data locally before it moves to RIM's servers in Canada.
Lindsey McDonald, a telecom consultant at Frost & Sullivan, told Gulf News: "The situation follows from Saudi Arabia and India [reaching agreements with RIM], either through local servers or access to international servers.
"Concerns have been raised about privacy issues. I don't think that's the case. It's just another medium that government departments feel the need to monitor as part of an overall strategy for security reasons," she said.
The suspension deadline was announced more than two months ago.
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