MONDAY, April 21, (News Locale) - The BlackBerry security issue is far from solved in India, but Tata Teleservices (TSL) has decided to go ahead with launching BlackBerry services for its customers.
 

TSL has told the government that the delay was costing it heavily in terms of "loss of business opportunity and recurring revenues.” BlackBerry devices have been making headlines in India for the last few weeks for all the wrong reasons.

Indian security agencies have expressed concern that data sent over BlackBerrys could effectively be transmitted through an encrypted security layer. The main problem is that all data sent over a BlackBerry is stored in RIM's own servers in Canada and is thus out of bounds for Indian security agencies.

However the DoT is looking to solve this issue by either asking RIM to shift servers for Indian networks to this country or create copies of e-mails and data sent over these devices in India and store the same for at least six months.

In India BlackBerry services are offered by carriers like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, BPL and Reliance Communications. Last month Tata Teleservices had revealed that the home ministry had denied permission for launching its own BlackBerry services due to security concerns.

Minister of State for Communications and IT, Jyotiraditya Scindia told the Parliament last week that for the moment the Government is asking carriers not to provide certain BlackBerry services until adequate monitoring systems are in place.

BlackBerry manufacturer Research In Motion, or RIM has sought some time from the Indian government to address the issue in a satisfactory manner. But Tata Tele seems to have lost patience with all the red tape.

“We do appreciate that there are security concerns and concerns on the subject of lawful interception. We, however, feel that having followed procedures to seek approvals we can’t be suffering vis-à-vis such operators who never sought such clearances," the company explained in a letter to the DoT.

BlackBerry is a wireless handheld device, which was launched in 1999. The handheld supports push e-mail, mobile telephone, text messaging, internet faxing, web browsing and other wireless information services and are immensely popular worldwide. It is estimated that there are at least 400,000 BlackBerry users in India.

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