UAE making 'good progress' in RIM talks

Abu Dhabi: The UAE is making "good progress" in talks with Research In Motion to solve a dispute over the government's ability to monitor BlackBerry handset communications, the ambassador to the US said yesterday.

The UAE plans to suspend some BlackBerry services from October unless it gains access to the communications. India and Saudi Arabia this month reached agreements with RIM on data access.

"Talks are going on and doing quite well," Yousuf Al Otaiba, the UAE ambassador to the US, told reporters in the capital Abu Dhabi. "Hopefully we will reach a conclusion in the near future."

BlackBerry Messenger, email and web browsing services will be halted in the UAE from October 11, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority said in a statement on August 1. The regulator claims BlackBerry messages, which are transferred to computer servers outside the country, can't be monitored as stipulated under national security laws.

"It's a compliance issue with regulatory demands," Al Otaiba said. "It's very straightforward. It's not anything regarding censorship, it's not regarding anything besides what the TRA has requested: compliance with regulatory standards."

RIM, based in Waterloo, Ontario, will give India access to its BlackBerry messenger service beginning September 1 to address security concerns, two government officials said in New Delhi on Monday.

RIM will provide an automated solution for tracking BlackBerry smartphone messages by November, said the officials who declined to be named because the discussions are private.

India meeting: Representatives absent

The much-awaited meeting between the Indian Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Canadian Research In Motion (RIM) failed to take off as officials of RIM failed to turn up for the proposed meeting.

Telecom industry sources say it could be part of the cat and mouse game that is currently going on which could determine who blinks first.

New Delhi has already fixed August 31 as a deadline to RIM to provide a solution to monitor encrypted messages sent through its mobile handsets sold under the brand name BlackBerry. "We ... have received a letter ... asking us to ensure that legal intervention capability is put in place for BlackBerry by 31 August 2010," a Tata Teleservices statement said yesterday. Reliance Communications, another BlackBerry service provider sounded confident that the Government of India would extend the August 31 deadline in its bid to give more time to all concerned.

— With inputs from Ajay Jha, Chief Correspondent