For those of you who maynot already be aware of this - BlackBerry may face a Ban in India soon. Yes - The Indian Government had officially asked the BlackBerry makers a.k.a Research in Motion (RIM) to provide the algorithms required to decrypt BlackBerry messages latest by March 31st, 2008 else face a total ban on BlackBerry services in the country. This move was entirely for security reasons, so as to protect the public from the anti-social elements of the nation who have off late become Gizmo freaks.It seems that the Government of India has already issued a strict warning to all telcom players in India [Source: All major new papers dated today] to put in place necessary security systems within 15 days, else stop BlackBerry services. The "necessary systems" would definitely mean systems that would be able to decrypt messages/communication sent from a BlackBerry device.
Well, the implication of a Ban of BlackBerry services would be really huge in India. India currently has over 400,000+ users of BlackBerry services and they would all be affected.
RIM has on it's part clarified that the company operates in more than 130 countries, and that it respects the regulatory requirements of governments. However that it does not comment on confidential regulatory matters or speculation on such matters in any given country.
Well, we need to wait and watch on this rather tricky regulation.
