New Delhi, Aug. 15: In a development that could impact BlackBerry services and also the ongoing discussions with its maker Research in Motion over security concerns, the department of telecom has said that no permission was given to start the service in the country.
According to senior DoT officials, “No explicit permission has been given by the government to start BlackBerry services in the country without setting up server.”
This assumes importance as nine leading telecom firms, including government-owned BSNL and other private players Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, RCom and Tatas are offering BlackBerry services in the country and the cumulative subscriber base is nearly one million.
“At present BlackBerry services are being provided by 9-Telecom Service Providers. The security agencies are unable to intercept and monitor Black-Berry services because of complex encrypted communication and non availability of BlackBerry servers in India,” says an internal noting of DoT.
This is despite the fact that the government has formulated a policy regarding internet services.
Further, organisations are permitted to use encryption up to 40-bit key length without obtaining permission from the licensor.
For deploying encryption equi-pment with higher limit, prior permission has to be taken after depositing de-cryption key with the government, DoT said.