BlackBerry, Nokia will allow access
Research In Motion (RIM), maker of BlackBerry mobile phones, on Monday agreed to give access to its services to Indian law enforcement agencies with immediate effect to avoid a ban.
Another phone-maker and service provider, Nokia, said it would set up servers in India by November to allow security agencies to monitor its push mail services. The government plans to soon issue notices to search engine Google, Internet phone-call provider Skype and service provider Virtual Private Network to provide law enforcement agencies access to their services.
Earlier, the Union home ministry had made it clear that BlackBerry would have to shut down operations in the country from September 1 if it failed to provide lawful access to Indian security agencies to communications passing through RIM systems. A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting chaired by Union home secretary G.K. Pillai on Monday. The meeting was attended by top officials of the Central intelligence agencies and RIM.
According to sources, RIM made certain proposals for lawful access to BlackBerry Enterprise Services and BlackBerry Messenger Services by law enforcement agencies. The home ministry issued a statement after the meeting that said, “RIM proposals to grant access to Indian agencies will be operationalised immediately. The feasibility of the solutions offered would be assessed thereafter.”
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