RIM's Blackberry may escape ban in India

NEW DELHI: Research In Motion, the Canadian makers of Blackberry, may escape a ban on its popular core services by agreeing to provide "manual interception" of its core Blackberry Messenger service (BBM).

Official sources said the technical group consisting of officials of the Department of telecom and security agencies have been satisfied with the manual interception being worked out by the smartphone makers to allow legal interception of its core services to Indian security agencies.

The technical group is likely to meet next week to discuss certain issues and after that the BBM service may be allowed to continue.

The sources, however, said that it may take three or four months before a final solution emerges on allowing Indian security agencies legal and direct access to both BBM and Blackberry Enterprise Service (BES).

The technical group is in the process of analysing the technical solution being offered on the Blackberry Enterprise Service (BES) and so far no final view has been taken on it.