India today began issuing letters to the country’s telecoms operators ordering them to make BlackBerry corporate e-mail and messenger services accessible to interception by security agencies or risk suspension of their licences.
The move marks the first step by the government towards implementing an ultimatum from the Ministry of Home Affairs on Thursday warning that India would block the services by the end of this month unless they were opened for monitoring.
“The issue is that the service providers have legal obligations to the government under their licences,” said one industry executive.
The legal obligations of Research In Motion, the Canadian company that makes the devices, were to the service providers, he said.
The order poses a dilemma for India’s 15 mobile operators, including industry leader Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar, the number three, as the technology for BlackBerry services is controlled by RIM.
The move also raises the temperature for RIM, which is locked in tense negotiations with the government over its encrypted enterprise e-mail service and messenger function amid concerns these might be misused by terrorists.
Spurred on by similar moves against RIM by the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, India is keen to tighten security ahead of the Commonwealth Games in October and to curb terrorist attacks originating from neighbouring Pakistan.
India is the world’s fastest growing mobile phone market with about 600m users and 10m-20m new customers being added every month.
While BlackBerry users number only about 1m, they are among the highest spending customers in a market in which growing competition is squeezing margins.
One operator said yesterday it had received a letter from the government ordering it to suspend the corporate e-mail or messenger service by the end of this month if a solution to the security issue was not reached. Operators were instructed to communicate the order to RIM.
India sets stringent conditions for mobile licence holders, requiring them to make all communications through their networks open to interception by security agencies.
Failure to do so can lead to the seizure of the operator’s network and equipment by the authorities and the suspension of the licence.
However, mobile operators say they doubt they have the technology to selectively block BlackBerry services.
The providers could instead suspend all domestic BlackBerry handsets from the network, but this would not prevent international users of the devices from using roaming services in India.
It is difficult to detect what type of handset is being used when an international customer enters a market using roaming services.
The government is expected to use the BlackBerry issue to put pressure on other internet-based communications systems, such as Google and Skype.
The names of the two internet providers were mentioned as next in line for scrutiny at a meeting last month between government officials and telecoms and internet service provider associations.
RIM’s stock fell 1.2 per cent to C$55.77 yesterday in early trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Oracle’s threat to Google mobile push
The legal war over software rights that Oracle launched against Google late on Thursday could hamper the internet company’s successful push into the smartphone market, industry analysts warned on Friday.
Oracle’s aggressive move was also a “nuclear deterrent” that would spread much more widely across the mobile devices industry, with long-term implications for many handset makers and carriers, said Mark Driver, an analyst at Gartner.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco, accuses Google of patent and copyright infringement over the inclusion of parts of Oracle’s Java software in its Android smartphone operating system.
Android, which Google makes available free of charge, has been taken up by handset makers including Motorola and HTC, and in the most recent quarter phones carrying the software overtook Apple’s iPhone in global sales.
Oracle acquired rights to Java, a set of tools that make it easier for software developers to write applications that run on many different operating systems, as part of its purchase of Sun Microsystems earlier this year.
The lawsuit shows that Oracle will seek to make more money from the rights to the widely used Java than Sun did, analysts said.
“You’re definitely going to get a stronger licence enforcement policy – and rightly so, perhaps,” said Al Hilwa, an analyst at IDC.
The lawsuit also serves as a warning to handset makers that are using Android and could tilt the balance in favour of other operating systems, including Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 software, which is due to be launched later this year, Mr Hilwa said.
If Google is forced to pay Oracle for the use of its technology, it could lead it to charge for Android, also making the software less attractive to handset makers, he added.
Many handset makers already have a licence that allows them to use Java. The prospect that Android would continue to grow fast raised the danger for Oracle that it would lose its power to charge a royalty on many new handsets, said Mr Driver.
However, some experts also warned that Oracle’s lawsuit could backfire, encouraging companies to look for alternatives to the Java technology.
At the time it bought Sun, Oracle executives said they would tread carefully in how they exercised their Java rights, since a heavy-handed approach could undermine the software’s standing as a de facto industry standard.
Legal battles over patents are rare between the technology industry’s leading players. Most maintain large portfolios of rights and have enough mutual self-interest to agree broad cross-licensing deals that give companies access to each others’ patents.
Oracle’s attack on Google highlights the internet company’s relatively weak patent portfolio, Mr Driver said.
Oracle’s aggressive move was also a “nuclear deterrent” that would spread much more widely across the mobile devices industry, with long-term implications for many handset makers and carriers, said Mark Driver, an analyst at Gartner.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco, accuses Google of patent and copyright infringement over the inclusion of parts of Oracle’s Java software in its Android smartphone operating system.
Android, which Google makes available free of charge, has been taken up by handset makers including Motorola and HTC, and in the most recent quarter phones carrying the software overtook Apple’s iPhone in global sales.
Oracle acquired rights to Java, a set of tools that make it easier for software developers to write applications that run on many different operating systems, as part of its purchase of Sun Microsystems earlier this year.
The lawsuit shows that Oracle will seek to make more money from the rights to the widely used Java than Sun did, analysts said.
“You’re definitely going to get a stronger licence enforcement policy – and rightly so, perhaps,” said Al Hilwa, an analyst at IDC.
The lawsuit also serves as a warning to handset makers that are using Android and could tilt the balance in favour of other operating systems, including Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 software, which is due to be launched later this year, Mr Hilwa said.
If Google is forced to pay Oracle for the use of its technology, it could lead it to charge for Android, also making the software less attractive to handset makers, he added.
Many handset makers already have a licence that allows them to use Java. The prospect that Android would continue to grow fast raised the danger for Oracle that it would lose its power to charge a royalty on many new handsets, said Mr Driver.
However, some experts also warned that Oracle’s lawsuit could backfire, encouraging companies to look for alternatives to the Java technology.
At the time it bought Sun, Oracle executives said they would tread carefully in how they exercised their Java rights, since a heavy-handed approach could undermine the software’s standing as a de facto industry standard.
Legal battles over patents are rare between the technology industry’s leading players. Most maintain large portfolios of rights and have enough mutual self-interest to agree broad cross-licensing deals that give companies access to each others’ patents.
Oracle’s attack on Google highlights the internet company’s relatively weak patent portfolio, Mr Driver said.
PTCL Introduce EVO NITRO Rev B
EVO NITRO Rev B
Introducing Evo 3G Nitro in Pakistan; “The World’s first & most cutting edge EV-DO Rev.B commercial network”
Key Highlights
Introducing Evo 3G Nitro in Pakistan; “The World’s first & most cutting edge EV-DO Rev.B commercial network”
Key Highlights
- PTCL is the first operator in the world to commercially launch EV-DO Rev.B products.
- Pakistan’s fastest & most cutting edge Enhanced Wireless Mobile Broadband solution.
- Highlight the product USP i.e. Download Speed of up to 9.3 Mbps & uplink of up to 5.4 Mbps.
- Nationwide Roaming facility, providing Rev B speeds in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore & Karachi with Backward compatibility & seamless roaming on Rev A Network (up to 3.1Mbps) in 99 cities across the country.
- Blazing fast speeds of Rev B would create excitement in the potential target market which would entice product demand & sales