By IANS
New Delhi : Indian telecom officials and the makers of BlackBerry will meet again April 15 to discuss security concerns raised here over the services provided by the company, an official said Thursday.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) official said after Thursday’s meeting lasting several hours that “the talks turned out to be somewhat successful and all the stakeholders have decided to meet again” next week.
Executive of the Canada-based Research in Motion (RIM), the makers of BlackBerry, declined to speak to the media. The company held a meeting with the Indian home ministry Wednesday.
An official source said that RIM senior officials were expected to demonstrate, next week, how the e-mail service in BlackBerry handsets work.
Currently four telecom operators – Airtel, Vodafone, BPL and Reliance Communications – offer BlackBerry services in India to about 400,000 users. The users include the Who’s Who of India.
According to the DoT, RIM needs to route all its calls and e-mails through servers based in India to allow security agencies intercept them in emergency. This is currently not possible as RIM has its servers in Canada.
BlackBerry services were introduced in India in October 2004.
The services came under the government’s scanner last year when an application by Tata Teleservices to launch a similar service was rejected over security concerns.