UAE decision to ban BlackBerry services 'final'

DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates said on Wednesday that a decision to cut some BlackBerry smartphone services was final, as users in Saudi Arabia expressed shock at their telecom regulator's decision to suspend services.

The UAE "Telecommunications Regulatory Authority's (TRA) decision to suspend certain Blackberry services from October 11th is final," the official WAM news agency quoted a statement by TRA director-general Mohammed al-Ghanem as saying.

The UAE announced on Sunday that BlackBerry services including messenger, web browsing and email will be suspended because they "allow individuals to commit violations" that the country cannot monitor.

However, Ghanem added on Wednesday that "We remain open to discussions in order that an acceptable, regulatory-compliant solution might be developed and applied," WAM reported.

In Saudi Arabia, the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) announced late on Tuesday that it had ordered the kingdom's three mobile phone providers to block BlackBerry services from Friday for failing to conform with regulations.

BlackBerry's encrypted emails and data are stored on servers in Canada, the headquarters of its maker Research in Motion (RIM). That means that third parties such as security agencies cannot monitor communications sent and received on the handset.

"This is an unfair decision. It should be revised," said accountant Mohammed Azib, 24, who was looking into selling his phone in Saudi Arabia.

"It is not our fault if telecommunication companies failed to adhere to commitments. Yesterday we were told that the service will continue, and now we are told that it will go off," he complained.

The CITC said it had given the providers a notice period to get RIM to "meet the regulatory demands," and that it had warned those companies over a year ago about the need to address the issue.

The services will be banned until its demands are met, the commission added, without specifying conditions.

"The commission wants RIM to allow government bodies to spy on subscribers. Why don't they say the truth?" one commentator wrote on the website of Al-Watan daily under the pseudonym "Chief of Liberals."

There are roughly 500,000 BlackBerry users in the UAE, and more than 700,000 in Saudi Arabia, where the Internet is strictly censored. Some Saudi users have already despaired of using their devices, whose prices have started to tumble on the local market.

"People are rushing to sell at any price while shops are refusing to buy," Ayub Bafaqir, 28, a cellphone salesman in Jeddah said.

"In the UAE, people at least have time until October, while here in Saudi Arabia, the decision will be implemented the day after tomorrow," he said.

"This morning I had a man and five of his sons coming in offering to sell their BlackBerry phones at a very tempting price. But I had to turn down the offer. No one is willing to take chances," said Mshari al-Nasser, 35, another salesman.

"The phone that we used to sell for 1,100 riyals (293 dollars) is on offer now for 920 riyals (245 dollars), and there are no takers," he said.

But not everyone is upset.

"This decision should have been taken a long time ago. It is rather late," said office clerk Badr al-Qahtani, 25.

"People have abused the services of BlackBerry. Moreover, the security of the homeland is paramount," he added.

In Dubai, BlackBerry users generally panned the planned October ban.

The suspension of the services is "going to be a massive problem for me, as far as my company's concerned," said Lauren, 30, an events manager originally from France.

If the UAE starts "doing this kind of thing, it will hurt the image of Dubai and the UAE and the Middle East," said Daniel, a 26-year-old from The Netherlands who works in marketing.

RIM is also under pressure from India to give security services access to its encrypted communications.

A telecoms ministry spokesman in India said efforts to resolve the security concerns involving BlackBerry, which has around one million customers in India, were "ongoing."

RIM insisted on Wednesday that it would not allow the Indian government to monitor encrypted emails, but said it hoped for a rapid solution to the country's concerns over national security.