Govt asks BlackBerry to provide access by Dec. 31

There are around one million BlackBerry subscribers in India.

The Canadian phone maker has sought more time on the access issue as it continues technical discussions on the BlackBerry Messenger Service (BMS) and BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) with the security agencies.

The Government first extended the original August 31 deadline to October 31.

“We are satisfied with the solution provided for the lawful interception of BMS. We want to test it for some more time while discussions on BES are still on,hence RIM has been given a fresh deadline,” an official said on Tuesday.

According to the licensing conditions,service providers are liable to put in a mechanism allowing security agencies to intercept any conversation or message of any subscriber whenever required.

As telecom service providers like Airtel,Vodafone,Rcom,the Tatas and the government-run BSNL and MTNL are offering BlackBerry services,it is the responsibility of these operators to ensure that the security agencies get access to all services they offer.

RIM representatives explained that BlackBerry mobile device sends encrypted emails,which are sent to BlackBerry Enterprise Server located with the service provider.

BES decrypts messages and sends them to the email server of the service provider where they remain stored in decrypted form. Then they are pushed to the BlackBerry device in encrypted form.

“We hope that final solution would be found by December 31,” the official said.

As of now,voicemail,SMS and BlackBerry Internet Services (BIS) have been made available to the law enforcement agencies.