India presses for BlackBerry access

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.