Updated : Blackberry Blackout By Indian Govt? Tata Tele's Application Rejected !

[Honest 836]

BlackBerry Blackout By Indian Govt?

CNBC-TV18's Sandeep Gurumurthi reports that Tata Teleservices' application to offer BlackBerry Services in India has been rejected after the Department of Telecom (DoT) forwarded the request to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

Anil Sardana, Managing Director of TTSL, told reporters in New Delhi this morning that they were told by the MHA that the BlackBerry service does not allow for "lawful interception" mandated for all Value Added Services (VAS).

Sources tell CNBC-TV18 that when Tata Tele asked DoT why other operators were being allowed, the DoT fired off letters to existing BlackBerry providers seeking an explanation. Sources also say that two rounds of discussion have happened between these operators and the MHA. A final call is expected to be taken in a meeting with the Telecom Secretary next week.

A spokesperson from RIM – the company that offers the BlackBerry service – said: "RIM supports its carrier partners in India and we will work together with them to seek further clarity."

Security experts we spoke to were sceptical of the claim, saying that in June last year the French government had advised officials not to use BlackBerry services for precisely the opposite reasons. At that time, officals at RIM claimed that even they did not have access to the data on their servers (a questionable claim in itself), an explanation that could have them in a spot when they meet with Indian authorities.

Nevertheless, it's tense times ahead for India's crackberries!

Edited September 21, 2008 by Honest

[Arun 795]

Sunday, Mar 09, 2008

New Delhi

The Union Home Ministry’s objection over Tata Teleservices application for offering advanced BlackBerry services, including e-mails on mobile handsets, has left other mobile operators already offering this service unnerved. Any blanket ban on the service could hit about five-lakh subscribers who are now using the BlackBerry service. This development has brought to the limelight other service providers who offer similar facilities.

A product of Canadian firm ‘Research In Motion’ (RIM), BlackBerry is a patented service that provides wireless e-mail solution to mobile professionals and individuals, just like SMS on any conventional mobile phone.

Citing security reasons, the Union Home Ministry wants access to all communications made through a mobile device at any given time, which is not done now in the case of BlackBerry device which works through a server and data is transferred in an encrypted format. As Blackberry does not allow for any interception, the Centre sees this as a security threat, particularly in the current scenario where terrorist organisations are using the Internet to communicate.

While leading mobile operators like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar and Reliance Communications are already offering BlackBerry services, denial to Tata Teleservices will not only hit the growth of the telecom market but also widen differences between various operators. Tata Teleservices has already sought a clarification from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) as to why only it was being singled out.

After the Home Ministry’s action, the DoT has swung into action and written to other BlackBerry service providers stating that they will have to provide monitoring facility for lawful interception of data transferred through the device. Operators have already held talks with senior DoT and Home Ministry officials, and soon they are likely to meet the Telecom Secretary to discuss the issue.

Apart from BlackBerry handsets, other advanced mobile devices are also there in the market that offer e-mail and push-mail facilities, which might now be brought under the scanner of the Union Home Ministry and the DoT.

These devices gives professionals wireless access to their offices and workstations while they are away, thus improving their efficiency and helping them work while on the move.

[Dj 25]

what a step backwards... wrong hole to snoop for terrorist activities... this medium i am sure has already been used, abused and moved on from by those smarties... such a pity indeed...

[Honest 836]

^^^

@Arun

MY dear friend, I had posted this news day before yesterday on the forum. The link of the thread is :

BlackBerry Blackout By Indian Govt?

If possible, please merge both the topics.

Regards.

[kesav 127]

India turns to Canada's spies to avert threat of espionage via BlackBerry

Canadian spies are set to help India's intelligence agencies to intercept BlackBerry messages to prevent the mobile e-mail service being shut down across the sub-continent.

The Indian Government believes that messages sent via the BlackBerry system, which is licensed to mobile operators by Research in Motion (RIM), a Canadian company, pose a threat to security because of the difficulty of tracing and intercepting them.

It has given the four domestic mobile operators that offer the service in India - Vodafone, Bharti Airtel, BPL Mobile and Reliance Communications - until the end of the month to detail how they route their users' e-mails. The demand comes after a refusal by the Ministry of Home Affairs to grant further BlackBerry licences. It acted after India's security services had raised doubts over whether they could “lawfully access” BlackBerry's encrypted system, which traffics messages between a handful of secure servers, all based outside India.

The move again places the security credentials of the gadget cherished by millions of corporate high-fliers in the spotlight. Assessments of the system vary: it is trusted by the British Government to relay “restricted” information. Others blacklist it as unsafe.

RIM insists that its technology is impregnable to spies. After France barred MPs and their advisers from using the system last year, RIM said that “rumours speculating that can be intercepted and read by the National Security Agency in the US or other 'spy' organisations are based on false and misleading information”.

Last week, RIM and its operator partners met officials from the Indian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and representatives from the Canadian Embassy to try to prevent a BlackBerry blackout being imposed in India, sources said. It is understood that further contact between the two countries' security agencies was agreed in an effort to allay India's concerns.

RIM said that it would not comment on “confidential regulatory matters”. An estimated 400,000 of RIM's 12 million users are in India, a figure that is likely to rise rapidly.

source :: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/busi...icle3516623.ece

Hope Canadian spies could solve the puzzle.

Edited March 10, 2008 by kesav

[HetalDP 947]

All Handsets of Blackberry is overpriced the OS is very Crude to Configure and they Generally sell Handset after giving Hefty Commisions to Operators there also no sense taking Blackberry Service for Rs. 1000 / month here also Operators earns Hefty Commisions!!!

Say no to BlackBerry its overpriced No Customer Care / Not available to Prepaid Customer non Transferrable and not Resellable to any Reliance Customer either.

[Arun 795]

Even though Microsoft has Push Mail feature for Windows Mobile, the convenience doesn't come near that of using a Blackberry which is a class of its own. It is built specifically for E-mail communication and comparing it with a PDA/Smarphone won't be logical.

BlackBerry opens a Pandora's box

Business Standard

March 12, 2008 01:51 IST

Indian operators offering BlackBerry services, top executives of Canadian telco Research in Motion (RIM), the company that owns the brand, security agencies and officials of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) are expected to meet on March 14 to answer the concerns of security agencies in a bid to prevent having BlackBerry services terminated after the March-end deadline.

BlackBerry has an estimated 400,000 subscribers in India. RIM has been asked to give access to its algorithims (needed to decrypt messages), according to a source.

"The security agencies are saying that we should have access to data that are being encrypted by services like BlackBerry on mobile phones and then decrypted when the phone reaches its nominated destination," the source added. RIM does not, or has not been asked, to do this in any other country but is considering the matter.

The case, meanwhile, has opened a Pandora's box in India. Operators note that if BlackBerry services are banned, security agencies could even target various e-commerce applications � especially money transfers � that use encryption.

Encryption is the process of converting information into a form that is unintelligible to anyone except holders of a specific cryptographic key (the intended recipient). This will make e-commerce virtually impossible.

"The argument can logically be extended to all encrypted transactions on wireless devices including banking, e-commerce, email and chat. It will also have a significant impact on privacy concerns for consumers. Much thought needs to be applied before deciding on it," said Alok Shende, Practice Head, Datamonitor India.

Indeed, scrutiny has already been stepped up for all Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

Rajesh Chharia, President, Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI), noted: "Routine check-ups are fine with us since the issue is one of national security. All ISPs must, and will, cooperate. What is of concern, though, is the fact that we have been asked to reduce the encryption from 128-bit to 40-bit, which is ridiculous."

The demand, he said, will put the entire online banking and e-commerce sectors in jeopardy. Having represented our concerns, we have yet to receive a response from DoT on this issue."

Cyberlaw experts, too, are concerned over the developments. While the government's motive is good, the Indian Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 is very unclear on this subject, noted Pavan Duggal, Supreme Court advocate and cyberlaw expert.

"Only Section 69 (Sub-section 2) gives the Controller of Certifying Authority the power to order the interception of electronic communication on computer systems located in India," he points out. In RIM's case, though, decryption is not possible without RIM's consent, which is why the government is fuming.

"This is, perhaps, the first time that the government is admitting to intercepting electronic communication. Blanket power to intercept emails will probably end up diluting the legal validity of encrypted communication in an age when privacy is of utmost importance to corporate and individuals. The Indian government could be firm, asking RIM (or any other player) to take action on a specific case that arouses suspicion. It may not be wise and practical to ban the services altogether," said Na Vijayashankar, cyberlaw expert.

Some technology experts like Vijay Mukhi note that if the email originates from India, it can be intercepted at the wireless service provider's end, since the nodes are in India.

The problem arises if the email originates from a BlackBerry device (since it goes to a server outside India where it gets encrypted). Even then, monitoring every mail that emanates from a server outside India will lead to a ridiculous state of affairs. All email services with servers in foreign lands will have to be shut down.

Google and Yahoo declined to comment on the issue and Microsoft India said the issue was not of immediate concern to them.

Sumeet Gugnani, Director, Mobile Communication Business, Microsoft India, said: "Windows Mobile-enabled handheld devices and cellphones enable users to configure mails on their respective in-house (read in India) exchange servers if they so wish."

[kshah 452]

all emotions to gather. What this babus are upto? really..............

[Ganesh 0]

Any email can be sent with encryption, why the fuss here

[vishalkumar 0]

No ban on Blackberry services: Govt

The government has ruled out banning Blackberry services in India. This was stated by the telecom secretary in New Delhi on Friday.

The government had referred the controversial issue of Blackberry mobile phones to the Telecom Commission to decide whether operators can continue offering this service.

Security agencies had said that they should have access to data that are being encrypted by services like BlackBerry on mobile phones and then decrypted when the phone reaches its destination. The government had cited security concerns as it could not monitor the content on RIM's servers, which were located in Canada and other foreign locations.

The issue of Blackberry was raised after Tata Teleservices [Get Quote] recently said that they have been denied the permission to offer this value added service by the Ministry of Home Affairs due to security concerns.

Tatas objected that while many other private players are offering the service and have a number of subscribers in their fold and partial treatment could affect Tatas' services.

Ref: http://www.rediff.com/money/2008/mar/14black.htm

[@ksh@T 20]

NEW DELHI: India will not ban the use of BlackBerry technology, top communications ministry officials assured on Friday, even as Bharti group chairman Sunil B. Mittal hoped its security concerns will be addressed soon.

"There is no question of banning BlackBerry," said Siddhartha Behura, secretary in the Department of Telecommunications. "We are keen to resolve the issue at the earliest," he told reporters on the margins of a conference here.

Communications Minister A. Raja, who was also a key speaker at the conference, said that the matter would be deliberated at length since security was a matter of paramount concern for the country.

"We will discuss this at the Telecom Commission," Raja added, in a reference to concerns expressed by the home ministry that e-mails received by the BlackBerry services cannot be intercepted, making it susceptible to misuse by terrorists.

Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance Communications and BPL Mobile are the four companies offering BlackBerry services and they have all been directed to allow the government to intercept e-mails by March 31, or face cancellation of licences.

The government has also called the licensor of BlackBerry, the Canada-based Research in Motion, for a meeting and has also sought access to its encryption algorithms that could help decode e-mail messages sent using this service.

"All these are technological issues," said Mittal. "I am sure they will all get resolved at the earliest," Mittal said, responding to the March 31 deadline for interception set by the government.

Govt tells telcos to save BlackBerry data for 6 months

KOLKATA/NEW DELHI: Here’s a new twist to the ongoing BlackBerry controversy. The Department of Telecom (DoT) is exploring the possibility of asking Canada’s Research In Motion (RIM) — the developer of the BlackBerry smartphone — and operators such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance Communications, which provide this service, to create a mirror image of all e-mails and data sent on these devices in India.

Besides, DoT may also ask all stakeholders to save the mirror image for a minimum period of six months to address concerns of security agencies. The move comes after intelligence and security agencies expressed concerns that data sent on BlackBerry devices travel through an encrypted security layer and, therefore, cannot be monitored.

DoT is also looking at other options such as the possibility of asking RIM to migrate all data traffic originating from Indian mobile networks to servers located in India. At present, e-mail traffic generated by BlackBerry subscribers in India is hosted on RIM’s overseas servers (primarily, in Canada), which cannot be lawfully intercepted by national security agencies.

Another possibility being considered relates to the encryption standards adopted by RIM. All data and e-mails sent via BlackBerry are uniquely coded, compressed and encrypted at a very high standard, which has been RIM’s USP. Encryption means converting data and e-mails into algorithmic codes that travel through the network.

Encryption means converting data and e-mails into algorithmic codes that travel through the network and later get decoded into the original form.

Such is the level of encryption that even RIM does not have access to data transferred on its network. While data on RIM network flows with the 256-Advanced Encryption Standard, DoT is may ask the company to reduce this to a 40-bit encryption, a level that can be intercepted by security agencies. Based on this logic, DoT had earlier forced all Internet service providers (ISPs) in India to slash encryption levels from the 128-bit standard to a 40-bit level. Globally, the 128-bit standard is followed for all online transactions.

According to sources, these options are likely to be discussed at length on March 14 at DoT’s scheduled meeting with RIM executives, service providers and security agencies. DoT has given itself a deadline of March 31 to resolve this issue, failing which it plans to ban BlackBerry services in India. For RIM, the stakes are very high. India, which has over four lakh BlackBerry customers, is one of the fastest-growing markets for RIM.

The heart of the BlackBerry security issue lies in an interesting revelation — any e-mail communication between BlackBerry owners (with BlackBerry e-mail IDs) in India bypasses the networks of Indian mobile operators providing BlackBerry services. For instance, an e-mail exchange between a rajesh@vodafone.blackberry.com and praveen@airtel.blackberry.com would bypass both Vodafone and Airtel networks and directly hit RIM’s offshore servers.

However, senior officials working with BlackBerry service providers in India claim that the communication passes through the operator’s network. “The entire e-mail operation between BlackBerry users involve three parts — mobile network, a push BlackBerry POP service and a mail server. All three elements come into play in any e-mail communication involving BlackBerry users,” said an executive.

It is on this backdrop that DoT is trying to assess whether the BlackBerry service would violate government regulations, pertaining to remote hosting of equipment. Under Indian regulations, ‘the control of remote access, i.e. activation, transfer of data, termination etc., shall be within the country and not at a remote location, abroad’. Also, ‘the government agency will be given all support to record the transactions for online monitoring’.

In its bid to counter any opposition from service providers, DoT will point out that Indian regulations clearly state that ‘suitable technical device should be made available at Indian end to the designated security agency/licensor, in which a mirror image of the remote access information is available on line for monitoring purposes’.

The regulation also adds that ‘complete audit trail of the remote access activities pertaining to the network operated in India should be maintained for a period of six months and provided on request to the licensor or any other agency authorised by it.’

DoT is also likely to seek a clarification from RIM on whether the BlackBerry service adheres to the provisions of US’ CALEA (Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, 1994) regulation.

CALEA was enacted to enable law enforcement agencies to conduct electronic surveillance by mandating that telecom carriers and manufacturers of telecom equipment modify and design their facilities to facilitate such surveillance.

Edited March 14, 2008 by @ksh@T

[Arun 795]

Any email can be sent with encryption, why the fuss here

If the Government wants, they can gain access to your email with the help of the email provider. With Blackberry, it is claimed that even RIM can't access your emails!

Good to know that they are not going to ban BlackBerry services in India!

[Arun 795]

Look who wants to read your emails

16 Mar 2008, Times News Network

When Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM) launched BlackBerry in 1999, within no time the revolutionary mobile dev- ice that enabled users to browse the Net, read emails in realtime and send fax documents earned the nickname, CrackBerry, an allusion to its notoriously addictive features. There is wry irony, therefore, in the government's own "crackberry" operation to acquire the keys that would give it power to decode and access the millions of emails sent and received by BlackBerry subscribers.

Like all secure internet services, RIM uses an encryption code that scrambles the email messages sent out from a BlackBerry device and then unscrambles it again when the message reaches its target. Only, Blackberry uses a highly complex algorithm for the purpose - a 256-bit advanced encryption standard (AES) process. Cyber experts say Indian intelligence agencies have decryption software that's at least two generations older. The Intelligence Bureau (IB) can, it is believed, decode messages with an encryption level of up to 40 bits though informed sources say it's in the process of acquiring a bit more advanced software. (According to cyber security experts, there's a rigid decryption technology hierarchy in the world: The US has the most advanced software, Europe gets tech that's one generation behind and countries like India have even older decoders.)

So, if intelligence agencies cannot crack BlackBerry's email code, they can still do one of two things - get the government to force RIM to scale down its encryption code to 40 bits, or better still, ask for the "keys" that will unlock the code. These are the contours of the standoff between the government on one side, and RIM and the telecom operators who provide BlackBerry services on the other. Though the government's reported threat of blacking out the service in India has receded after a meeting last Friday between the parties concerned, the stakes were high as a ban would have hit more than 4 lakh BlackBerry users. RIM is still required to provide a solution that will enable security agencies to "access" its email traffic.

Inherent in the controversy was an issue that got little attention: Why should the government be seeking the right to snoop on all BlackBerry users? Says cyber law expert Pavan Duggal, "This issue, I feel, is the first chapter of a controversy that will have many ramifications. What's being sought here is blanket surveillance. The intelligence agencies would have access to all the emails going through all BlackBerries in the country. One understands the security concerns, and ISPs have been cooperating with the government on this, but such overarching powers go against people's constitutional rights and can be challenged in court as violation of Article 21 of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to life."

Duggal says section 69 of the IT Act, 2000, does give the government the power to intercept electronic information, but such sweeping surveillance is clearly stretching the law. "And, what impact will it have on e-commerce? People will be extremely concerned about sending business details through the Net."

In the 1990s, the Supreme Court lay down a detailed procedure for tapping of phones by the government in the PUCL vs GOI case. The judgment marked a clear line between actions that are legal and those that aren't. Experts feel the absence of a similar encryption law in the country is allowing the government space to move into fuzzy territory. The task of formulating this law has now been given to the National Technical Research Organisation, an apex body on cyber security issues. But stakeholders in the IT sector say other laws too need to be upgraded.

For instance, says Rajesh Chharia, president of the Internet Service Providers' Association of India, "the licencing norms for ISPs were created in 1998-99. Accordingly, licences issued to ISPs forbid encryption above 40 bits. Today, a 40-bit code can be cracked in no time. A browser like Internet Explorer 7 has a 128-bit code. So, any web provider using an encryption of over 40 bits has to provide the keys to the government.''

This, of course, means that the government has the means to track transactions and correspondences in these websites - an access it doesn't have in the BlackBerry platform since the ISPs providing these services were, for some reason, never asked to hand over the encoding key. So, is the Indian state turning Orwellian, intent on keeping a watchful on its flock in the breach of privacy norms?

"This is a huge exaggeration,'' says Maloy Krishna Dhar, former joint director, IB. "In practice, there never is any blanket search of cyber traffic. Intelligence agencies always conduct targeted searches. We have a list of suspected individuals and email IDs - the numbers may run into thousands - and the computer tracks activities of these persons. This itself is a huge task for a small organization like IB.''

Dhar says certain compromises will have to be made because of the times. "It is a contradictory situation. We have high personal liberties and also a high level of security threat. BlackBerry, for instance, is a new tool in the hands of terrorists. To deal with that, there may be some curtailment in privacy."

Terror organizations are constantly changing their footprint and upgrading their technology, he says. "Today, if we have tracked, say, 555 webpages linked to the terror network, tomorrow they may all disappear and return modified. It's a nightmarish scenario for security agencies." Dhar admits that powers of surveillance can be misused. "That's a devil you have to live with. Unfortunately, the legal and political framework needed to check misuse of cyber-snooping by our politicians is lacking in the country," he adds.

That's a point many cyber experts are making. Can the intelligence agencies ensure fairplay? As Duggal puts it, "People may be willing to give up some of their civil liberties for dealing with the security threat to the country. But there should be a clear-cut policy framework and laws on what kind of invasion is lawful and what's not." Clearly, there's room for legislative action and transparency in cyberspace.

[Honest 836]

Is The Planned Blackberry Blackout On Sunday "Routine Maintenance"?

Blackberry subscribers on some Indian wireless operators such as AirTel & Vodafone, received notifications today from their providers' corporate services departments informing them that Blackberry services would be unavailable on Sunday morning between 0730h and 1130h.

While RIM declined to comment, some of the operators we contacted, said it was "routine maintenance."

Vodafone's technical helpdesk said that it was an annual maintenance operation, originally scheduled for January which got shifted to March. A representative said that RIM chose the time after conducting a survey and determining the lowest email period.

A spokesperson for Airtel said that RIM had informed them it was routine outage, involving other parts of South East Asia apart from India. She further added that AirTel did not expect the actual outage period to last more than an hour.

A senior tech executive at Reliance Communications said that the company was earlier intimated about an outage and that they had informed their subscribers that Blackberry services would be unavailable on Sunday morning between 0730h and 1130h.

While it's highly likely that this is indeed a normal infrastructure upgrade drill, the recent government threat to blackout the service adds a twist to the tale. Telecom Secretary S Behura, yesterday said that there was no question of a ban , though some of the "solutions" being discussed such as deployment of "mirror servers" are already raising eyebrows.

Moreover, today's Business Standard reports :

DoT, however, pointed out that due to home ministry objections it had already informed all operators to stop Blackberry services by the end of December. However, responding to requests, operators were given a three-month extension, which ends in March.

The conflicting reports from operators and RIM's silence seems to suggest that there could be more to this "routine maintenance" than meets the eye.

[Ramchi 0]

It is plain and simple! Babus and Central Government missed out the great oppurtunity to make money! They thought only Mobile operators bound to pay their "tribute" to the Government servants (read Politicians and Babus). After so many years they woke up that they had missed the oppurtunity to make money and when TATAs enter the market they suddenly make it up an issue.

Mr Raja sums up the whole thing by saying, "Talks at different levels take place" - which in Indian language means only one thing, Fund Transfer to secret Swiss Bank accounts!

Security, encrypytion etc...are beyond the comprehensio of these jokers. Blackberry, Canadian operator has realized that they do not reserve the ONLY right to loot Indian customers and they are now sharing it with political masters.

[kesav 127]

DoT asks RIM to set up server in India

Operators support the move.

Goa: The Department of Telecom has asked Research In Motion (RIM), the Canadian company which owns Blackberry services, to look at the possibility of setting up a server in India in case they are not willing to share the decryption code.

The DoT’s request has been supported by Indian mobile operators who are also putting pressure on RIM to amicably resolve the issue at the earliest.

Meeting in Capital

At a meeting between DoT and RIM in the Capital on Friday, the Government has asked the company to make necessary arrangements to allow monitoring by security agencies. Officials from the Canadian High Commission were also present during the meeting. RIM has sought more time to respond to DoT’s request.

DoT officials told Business Line that the company has been told that only Blackberry to Blackberry traffic needs to be monitored.

DoT has given a clean chit to data being sent from a Blackberry device to another device or through the Internet as this can be decrypted by the security agencies without getting the codes from RIM.

Security concerns

Blackberry services had run into rough weather after security agencies expressed concern that they could not monitor the data being sent through the device due to the high encryption codes.

According to Indian Internet services rules, operators are not allowed to use more than 40 bit encryption code unless they submit a decryption key to the Government.

RIM, which uses more than 128 bit encryption codes to make the transmission secure, has refused to submit the decryption codes on the grounds that it was proprietary.

Support for stand

“We are also putting pressure on RIM to do whatever it takes to enable monitoring by security agencies. We support the request to set up a server in India,” said a GSM industry representative.

At present, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, BPL and Reliance Communications are offering Blackberry services in the country to about 4 lakh subscribers.

Tata Teleservices also wants to offer the service but was stopped by DoT after security agencies raised concerns about monitoring.

Locating a server in India will allow the security agencies to monitor traffic at the gateway without having to break into the Blackberry’s secure transmission codes. According to industry estimates, a server would cost $500,000 at the most.

Earlier, DoT had said that the Government was not interested in banning Blackberry in the country.

ISPs’ request

The fallout of the RIM controversy will have a major ramification for the Internet-based application service providers in the country at large. Most of the service providers use 128 bit encryption codes and not all of them have submitted their decryption codes to the Government.

Meanwhile, the Internet Service Providers have asked DoT to raise the permitted encryption levels from 40 bits to 128 bit at least.

source :: http://sify.com/finance/fullstory.php?id=14631948

[HetalDP 947]

Hehe Government Want a Complete Control any way its a Longterm Stategy

[anuragemani 2]

Have any of you have got the latest of regarding the govt talks and issues with regard to the ban of blackberry serivces????....The last i heard was RIM was given 10 days time for allowing them to acess the server or decrypt the mails ( this is as on 28th March), no news in the papers after this. Any one of u hv the latest on this ???????????????

[Arun 795]

RIM was given more time to find a solution. DoT has asked BlackBerry to setup servers in India so that it can be intercepted, though I don't think it may be viable for them.

I found an interesting debate about the Blackberry issue here: http://www.business-standard.com/common/ne...18636&tab=r

[Arun 795]

Blackberry solution expected by April 9

April 04, 2008 00:51 IST

Business Standard

Research-in-Motion, the Canada-based provider of Blackberry services, has assured Indian operators that it has come up with a solution to the contentious issue of allowing government security agencies to monitor the service without compromising data security.

Communications Minister A Raja confirmed that the solution will be finalised at a meeting with the Department of Telecommunication on April 9.

This is expected to end uncertainty for 400,000 users in India and telecom companies like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar, Reliance Communications, BPL and others that provide this small but high-revenue service.

Top RIM executives had a long meeting on the details of the solution with operators in Delhi under the aegis of the Cellular Operators Association of India on Thursday.

Blackberry has been under fire since December after the government rejected an application from Tata Teleservices to operate the service.

All companies offering the service were also directed to discontinue it from December 31, 2007.

In later meetings, the government demanded the encryption level of the services be reduced, a move operators argued was untenable in the interests of security.

"Most of our users are corporations, so high encryption levels cannot be compromised for corporate mails flowing through the system," said a senior executive.

[Honest 836]

^^^

Thats a news of some relief for blackberry users my dear friends.

Regards.

[kesav 127]

Tata Tele to launch Blackberry services without govt approval

Citing “significant loss of business opportunity and recurring revenues” due to the government’s delay in approving its proposed tie-up with Research in Motion’s (RIM) Blackberry services, Tata Teleservices has now reportedly decided to go ahead with launching the services for its subscribers.

The Blackberry issue had hit the limelight after Tata Teleservices application to the government a couple of months back seeking approval for launch of the services. It was incidentally the first operator who had sought permission to launch the services as other operators like Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance had launched the services without seeking government approval.

A TTSL letter to DoT said, “As you are aware, various operators have been offering BlackBerry services to their customers since a number of years. However, TTSL has got stranded after we applied for clearance, resulting in a significant loss of business opportunity and recurring revenues for last quite a few months.”

The company also said, “We do appreciate that there are security concerns and concerns on the subject of lawful interception. We, however, feel that having followed procedures to seek approvals we can’t be suffering vis-à-vis such operators who never sought such clearances.”

source :: http://www.telecomtiger.com/fullstory.aspx...ssfrom=topstory

[kesav 127]

BlackBerry crisis: DoT comes up with interim solution

NEW DELHI: The ongoing tussle between India’s security agencies, home ministry and the department of telecom (DoT) on one side and BlackBerry’s maker RIM may finally be resolved, at least for a year.

ET has learnt that DoT has proposed an interim solution where all data between BlackBerry users are stored on the servers of the telcos like Bharti, Vodafone and others who offer this service, for a year.

The DoT has asked RIM to use this 12-month period to move some of its servers to India, which will then enable the country’s security agencies to monitor the BlackBerry traffic. DoT sources share the view that since RIM has not opposed this interim solution, they hoped that issue will be settled soon.

ET had first reported last month that DoT is exploring the possibility of asking RIM and operators such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance Communications, which provide this service, to create a mirror image of all e-mails and data sent on these devices in India and save it for a minimum period of six months.

The DoT proposal is in line with Indian regulations which clearly state that ‘suitable technical device should be made available at Indian end to the designated security agency/licensor, in which a mirror image of the remote acess information is available on line for monitoring purposes’.

The regulation also adds that ‘complete audit trail of the remote access activities pertaining to the network operated in India should be maintained for a period of six months and provided on request to the licensor or any other agency authorised by it.’

India’s security agencies have been calling for a solution that will enable them to monitor BlackBerry data, this is because mails sent between BlackBerry owners in India bypasses the networks of Indian mobile operators providing BlackBerry services and directly hit RIM’s servers in Canada and, therefore, cannot be lawfully intercepted by national security agencies.

The DoT, in a meeting last month, with RIM, had asked the Canadian company to set up servers in India, and the move was supported by service providers such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, BPL and Reliance Communications, who offer the Blackherry services here.

However, RIM has sought more time to respond to the DoT request, and talks on alternate solutions continued as the Canadian company did not want to move servers to India. DoT sources say that the interim solution will enable both sides to work out a concrete long term solution.

source :: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/N...how/2973303.cms

[kesav 127]

No Blackberry, Govt tells Tata

NEW DELHI: The government has asked Tata Teleservices not to offer BlackBerry services unless the required monitoring system being insisted for by security agencies are put in place.

"Keeping in view of the security implication involved, the licencee (company) is directed not to connect or provide or run the BlackBerry e-mail and mobile messenger services unless the required monitoring system to the satisfaction of the security agencies are in place and the master key and algorithm are deposited with the licensor," DoT said in a letter to Tatas.

Tata Teleservices and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) limited had sought permission for launching BlackBerry services, saying other leading operators have been offering services without meeting the above mentioned security clauses.

"...Non compliance of instructions by any other operator in breach of terms and conditions of the licence cannot be a valid ground for according permission to offer BlackBerry services," DoT said.

DoT and the ministry of home affairs have been battling with the BlackBerry licensor Research-in-Motion (RIM) as also mobile service providers like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance Communications to put in place a system to intercept data sent using BlackBerry technology.

In fact, DoT had said that it was the responsibility of domestic mobile service providers like Bharti, Vodafone and others to ensure that security system was in place before offering BlackBerry e-mail and mobile messenger services.

It is noted that the said instructions (on security) have not been fulfilled by either Tata Teleservices or Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) limited so far and therefore, it is not possible to accede to the request for launching BlackBerry services, DoT said.

DoT's technical team has held a series of meetings with RIM officials in order to find a solution so that mobile service providers could continue offering premium BlackBerry services to its about four lakh subscribers in the country.

Sources indicated that RIM may place its server in India so that the e-mail routed through BlackBerry could be intercepted, if required, by the security agencies. At present, the servers used for routing content sent through Blackberry is located abroad.

source :: http://infotech.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2975611.cms

That's a good move by DoT.

Good dog shouldn't be allowed to follow stray dogs.

On the same line, I request DoT to reward TATA for seeking its permission for the 1st time to start Blackberry services.

This would enhance the Licensor--Licensee relationship.

[@ksh@T 20]

No resolution of Blackberry issue yet, says Raja

NEW DELHI: The Home Ministry is still not convinced by the security solution offered by Blackberry stakeholders and concerns about the service being a security threat are yet to be resolved, Communications Minister A Raja said on Wednesday.

"The Home Ministry is still not convinced on how the encryption can be carried out," Communication and IT Minister A Raja told a private TV channel CNN-IBN.

A meeting was held between the officials of Department of Telecom (DoT), Blackberry vendor Research-In-Motion (RIM) and the Home Ministry, the minister said, adding that the "issue has not yet been resolved."

Sources said that Ministry of Home Affairs has asked RIM to place the server, through which e-mails are routed on Blackberry sets, in the country so that contents could be monitored, if required.

There are about four lakh subscribers of Blackberry services in India. Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar and Reliance Communications offer the service in India.

DoT is looking at various options including taking help from foreign companies to monitor the contents transmitted through Blackberry device. But no final decision has yet been taken.

BlackBerry crisis: DoT comes up with interim solution

NEW DELHI: The ongoing tussle between India’s security agencies, home ministry and the department of telecom (DoT) on one side and BlackBerry’s maker RIM may finally be resolved, at least for a year.

ET has learnt that DoT has proposed an interim solution where all data between BlackBerry users are stored on the servers of the telcos like Bharti, Vodafone and others who offer this service, for a year.

The DoT has asked RIM to use this 12-month period to move some of its servers to India, which will then enable the country’s security agencies to monitor the BlackBerry traffic. DoT sources share the view that since RIM has not opposed this interim solution, they hoped that issue will be settled soon.

ET had first reported last month that DoT is exploring the possibility of asking RIM and operators such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance Communications, which provide this service, to create a mirror image of all e-mails and data sent on these devices in India and save it for a minimum period of six months.

The DoT proposal is in line with Indian regulations which clearly state that ‘suitable technical device should be made available at Indian end to the designated security agency/licensor, in which a mirror image of the remote acess information is available on line for monitoring purposes’.

The regulation also adds that ‘complete audit trail of the remote access activities pertaining to the network operated in India should be maintained for a period of six months and provided on request to the licensor or any other agency authorised by it.’

India’s security agencies have been calling for a solution that will enable them to monitor BlackBerry data, this is because mails sent between BlackBerry owners in India bypasses the networks of Indian mobile operators providing BlackBerry services and directly hit RIM’s servers in Canada and, therefore, cannot be lawfully intercepted by national security agencies.

The DoT, in a meeting last month, with RIM, had asked the Canadian company to set up servers in India, and the move was supported by service providers such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, BPL and Reliance Communications, who offer the Blackherry services here.

However, RIM has sought more time to respond to the DoT request, and talks on alternate solutions continued as the Canadian company did not want to move servers to India. DoT sources say that the interim solution will enable both sides to work out a concrete long term solution.

i just ask one thing that when all operators aka airtel, reliance, hutch are offering blackberry , what the hell is problem in tata, why every time rules are different for CDMA operators not GSM operators why the hell is this partiality in industry, rukes are rules they are to be followed by all