The Centre could ban by next week pushmail, messenger, chat and video MMS streaming services on Black - Berry phones if service providers are unable to find a way to allow such data to be made available to the government for interception.
Government sources on Wednesday said that while the Centre had no problem with voice calls, voicemail and even normal e - mail services on BlackBerry phones as these can be intercepted for security reasons, the real concern is with regard to pushmail, messenger and video MMS services.
“ At the time of getting a licence, all the service providers like Airtel and Vodafone have an agreement with the department of telecommunications (DoT) that they will make available all data for interception by the government if security agencies want to put a certain individual under the tapping scanner.
Presently, the pushmail, messenger and video MMS service of BlackBerry cannot be intercepted.
Hence, we have made it incumbent on the part of the service provider to ask Black- Berry to open such services for interception or the service provider will have to block all such services. The government here is only dealing with the service providers and not with BlackBerry,” a government source explained.
The source added that service providers have two weeks to comply — the deadline ends next week. Canada’s Research in Motion (RIM), the maker of BlackBerry phones, had recently assured the government through the service providers that it was working out a way to “ de- compress” the data so that the government could intercept it, the source said. “ But we are still waiting for the results,” the source added.
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