US, RIM talk with Saudi government as ban looms

Dubai/Riyadh: The US and Canadian governments and Research In Motion (RIM) are continuing talks with authorities in the Arabian Gulf and South Asia to head off restrictions on the BlackBerry handset as Saudi Arabia prepared to suspend services.

The largest Arab economy, Saudi Arabia, said on Tuesday that it would order the country's three mobile-phone operators to shut off instant messaging services starting yesterday.

Users in the kingdom said they lost access to some phone capabilities for a part of the day, before it was restored. The US and Canadian governments said on Thursday they're in talks with foreign governments to find a solution.

RIM, based in Waterloo, Ontario, faces growing scrutiny over its BlackBerry e-mail and messaging services in countries including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and India. Indonesia, the world's fourth most-populous nation, became the latest country to express concern about BlackBerry services.

The US government is discussing a proposed ban in the UAE, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday at a press conference.

Canadian Trade Minister Peter Van Loan told reporters his country's officials are working with RIM and foreign governments to find a solution to disputes over the device.

Saudi Telecom, Etihad Etisalat, known as Mobily, and the local unit of Kuwait's Mobile Telecommunications, known as Zain KSA, were ordered to stop messaging services after a year-long consultation with RIM failed to bring BlackBerry functions into line with Saudi Arabia's telecommunications laws, the regulator said last week.

Government officials were still in talks with RIM over the issue last week, Sultan Al Malek, a spokesman for the regulator said in an e-mailed response to question last Wednesday.

"There is a legitimate security concern," Clinton said, "but there's also a legitimate right of free use and access."

Security weaknesses

Turkey's telecommunications regulator yesterday said there are "serious" security weaknesses related to BlackBerry services in the country, adding that it has set up a committee to look into the matter.

The Indonesian government on Thursday backed away from limiting BlackBerry services in the country a day after an official with the national regulator said a ban was possible.

RIM spokeswoman Marisa Conway didn't return a call or message seeking comment on Thursday. A spokeswoman for the company in Dubai couldn't be reached yesterday. An external spokeswoman for RIM in London said she was unable to comment.

The UAE said in a statement last week that it wouldn't be changing its decision to ban BlackBerry service in October and that it was open to discussions aimed at achieving a solution to the issue.

US State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley said on Thursday the US has been in touch with RIM and will have further meetings "to try to understand fully the issues that have been raised" and "determine how to meet both the security needs that these countries are expressing and also ensure the free flow of information as we are advocating." The US is also in touch with all the countries involved, he said.

RIM said on Wednesday it can't meet requests from governments that it reveal codes for reading some users' communications. The BlackBerry corporate service was designed to prevent RIM, or anyone else, from reading encrypted information and any claims that RIM provided "something unique to the government of one country" are unfounded, it said.

The Indian government is still in talks with RIM over BlackBerry services and is hopeful an agreement can be reached, Telecommunications Minister Andimuthu Raja said this week. India may ban RIM services unless the Canadian company agrees to resolve security concerns.