The telecommunications regulator of the UAE has confirmed that it will be blocking the email and in-messenger services of BlackBerry users from 1st October. The TRA has had a long-running spat with Research In Motion – the Canadian-based manufacturer of…
The telecommunications regulator of the UAE has confirmed that it will be blocking the email and in-messenger services of BlackBerry users from 1st October. The TRA has had a long-running spat with Research In Motion – the Canadian-based manufacturer of BlackBerry Smartphone since 2007 over access to the communications of BlackBerry users in the UAE. It had requested access to BlackBerry email messages in two court cases, and RIM had – as is company policy – refused. The problem with BlackBerry email and instant messaging is that it is routed through two secure servers, one in Canada and one in the UK, which the government of the UAE, or anyone else has no access to. Other smartphones route their email and messaging through local servers, which would allow access for a government paranoid with its own security. Simon Simonian, senior telecoms analyst at Shuaa Capital, a UAE-based investment bank said: “Although the UAE is a small market in global terms for RIM, the stakes are high. On one hand the government of the UAE wants to protect itself from internal and external security threats, on the other RIM trades off the back of being the most secure mobile email service in current existence; something that the worlds leading CEOs and even Presidents admire BlackBerry for.”
Simonian suggested that there was a threat of contagion to other MENA and developing world markets with similar concerns about internal and external security, and this could affect the growth plans of RIM, which must see the developing world as a huge future target market. RIM also would have economic concerns, as setting up servers in a swathe of small developing countries would have deep cost implications for the company. At the moment the company serves over 41m subscribers from just two servers. RIM has already come to a collaborative security arrangement with the governments of the US and UK and Simonian said that the UAE wants parity with the US and UK.
The telecom regulators in Bahrain as well in Qatar have announced that they will not be following suite with the UAE. However, the telcom regulators in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have said that they are also considering a ban. The TRA of the UAE was not available for comment.
