The government has fixed March 31 as deadline for all telecom operators to submit plans for interception of their services, including popular BlackBerry by security agencies. The Home Ministry has asked the Department of Telecom (DoT) to ensure that all telecom operators submit their plans by the end of this month on when they can provide access to all services, including BlackBerry Enterprise Service, BES of Canadian firm Research in Motion, RIM. RIM, which offers the BlackBerry services through eight operators, has been saying that it cannot provide access to the popular BES as it does not possess any key and the security architecture is the same around the world. The order will cover all service providers, including RIM, Skype and others. There are over one million BlackBerry subscribers in India and the number is growing fast.Indian security agencies have been demanding access to all BlackBerry services as part of efforts to fight militancy and security threats over the Internet and through telephone communications.Last month, Home Secretary G. K Pillai had said that telecom operators will have to stop any such services that cannot be monitored as per the satisfaction of law enforcement agencies.
News On AIR | March 7, 2011 9:36 PM
Govt. fixes March 31 as deadline for all telecom operators to submit security plan