BSNL to start BlackBerry services next month

NEW DELHI: State-run telecom company Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd on Friday said it would startBlackBerry services by next month.

"We are well on track to launch our BlackBerry services by next month," BSNL Director (Finance) S D Saxenatold reporters on the sidelines of a CII conference here.

Five mobile service providers -- Airtel, Vodafone, BPL, Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices -- are currently offering BlackBerry services in India.

BlackBerry services were introduced in India in October 2004. However, it came under the government's scanner last year when security agencies could not access the data stored in the Blackberry network.

India has earlier asked Research in Motion (RIM), the maker of Blackberry, to route all its calls and e-mails through servers based in India to allow security agencies to read them as it fears its usage by terrorist outfits.

This is because calls and e-mails exchanged within BlackBerry handsets cannot be intercepted as the servers are based in Canada.