Telcos seek more time to monitor BlackBerry services

NEW DELHI: Mobile phone companies are learnt to have sought additional time, in some cases until the weekend, to install equipment that can monitor services on the popular BlackBerry handsets even as the deadline imposed by the Centre expired on Wednesday. Only Tata Teleservices said they had sent a compliance letter to the government ahead of deadline.

Telecom companies have also told the Centre that while they can monitor BlackBerry messenger (BBMS or chat), mobile operators did not have the facilities to track enterprise services – the corporate email facility offered by Canada’s Research in Motion ( RIM), the maker of these high-end handsets.

“We have told the government that we can monitor email – tell them precisely who is sending the communication to whom and also when it was sent. But, we do not have the technology to decipher the encrypted email and share its contents with the government,” an executive with a telecom company explained.

“We can intercept services provided on these handsets only if RIM shares the encryption codes and keys with us,” this executive added.

The telecom department officials said the Centre will not terminate BlackBerry services from Thursday for non-compliance by operators and is set to grant an extension. Put simply, the one million plus BlackBerry customers in the country will continue to avail services on this handset.

The Canadian firm had already made available its services like BlackBerry internet, voice calls and short messaging to security agencies in India for monitoring. Access to enterprise email and BlackBerry messenger are the only outstanding issues between RIM and India’s security agencies.