The Hindu Business Line : GSM operators opt out of Blackberry talks

New Delhi, April 16 GSM mobile operators have opted out of the discussion with the Government on addressing security issues related to Blackberry service. This leaves Canada-based Research In Motion, which owns the Blackberry brand, to directly negotiate with the Department of Telecom and security agencies on setting up a suitable monitoring mechanism.

At a meeting held last week, RIM requested that it be allowed to discuss its plans to address the security concerns directly with Government authorities instead of going through the mobile operators. Sources said that RIM officials were concerned that since the topic of discussion was sensitive for security purposes, the proceedings of the meeting may be leaked out to the media in case the operators were also involved. While representatives of the various mobile operators were present during the meeting last week, RIM executives and DoT officers met separately in another room.

GSM operators are now saying that they would not attend any future meetings on this issue since it was up to RIM to decide on how they wanted to help Indian security agencies in monitoring data sent through Blackberry devices.

DoT demand

DoT has asked RIM to either share the decryption code or set up a local server in India. While GSM operators are backing DoT’s demand, RIM is working out on a formula that will address the monitoring issue, but does not want the operators to get involved at this stage. RIM has sought time till April 18 to come up with a plan.

“This is a matter between RIM and the Department of Telecom and we are confident that it will be resolved,” Bharti Airtel President and CEO, Mr Manoj Kohli, said.

Sources within the GSM camp said that with only 2 lakh Blackberry users, there is no crisis even if the service was banned. They also pointed out that there were many other handset devices available today which provides similar type of services though the security levels may not match up to that of a Blackberry.

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