Indian govt threatens to terminate BlackBerry services in India

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From: Srini Ramakrishnan [cheeni () gmail com]
Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2008 1:35 PM
To: David Farber
Subject: Indian govt threatens to terminate BlackBerry services in India

The Indian govt is yanking licenses of telco operators unless they let
them spy on all Blackberry communication and / or use 40 bit keys.

Cheeni

http://www.hindu.com/2008/03/09/stories/2008030955151200.htm

and

http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSBOM10000520080312?sp=true

Mobile firms seek India govt meeting on BlackBerry
Wed Mar 12, 2008 6:38am EDT

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Mobile phone operators are seeking more talks to
discuss Indian government security concerns which a newspaper said
could lead to the termination of BlackBerry services in India, an
industry official said on Wednesday.

The Business Standard, citing unnamed sources, reported that Indian
security agencies want BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion (RIM.TO:
Quote, Profile, Research) (RIMM.O: Quote, Profile, Research) to give
them access to algorithms needed to decrypt messages, or face a
termination of the service at the end of March.

"We have met them (the government) more than once and we are trying to
meet them again," T.V. Ramachandran, director general of the nine-
member Cellular Operators' Association of India, told Reuters.

"Government wants some security concerns to be addressed and we are
trying for an effective dialogue with the security agencies and the
department of telecommunications," he said.

The paper said security agencies, the department of
telecommunications, RIM executives and Indian operators offering
BlackBerry services would meet on March 14, although this could not be
confirmed.

"RIM operates in more than 130 countries around the world and respects
the regulatory requirements of governments. RIM does not comment on
confidential regulatory matters or speculation on such matters in any
given country," a spokeswoman in Hong Kong said.

One analyst said it would not make sense for RIM to disclose its
algorithms as that was their competitive advantage.

"Although the government's concerns are genuine ... there is no need
to make too much out of it," said Kaustubh Dhavse, program manager,
ICT practice for South Asia and Middle East at consultancy Frost &
Sullivan.

"RIM has been there for many years and they have businesses in many
countries. So what they need to do is they have to assure the nodal
agency that any malpractice won't happen. And the operators need to
have their own safeguard in place."

The Business Standard said BlackBerry had an estimated 400,000
subscribers in India, while Dhavse put it at more than half a million.

RIM's spokesman for India, Satchit Gayakwad, said BlackBerry services
were offered in India by four providers, Vodafone (VOD.L: Quote,
Profile, Research), Bharti Airtel (BRTI.BO: Quote, Profile, Research),
Reliance Communications (RLCM.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) and BPL
Mobile.

He said BlackBerry had 12 million customers worldwide in December.

(Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; additional reporting by Judy Hua in
Hong Kong; Writing by Charlotte Cooper; Editing by John Mair)

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