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Our Bureau

New Delhi, April 10 The meeting between the Department of Telecom (DoT) and GSM operators on the BlackBerry issue remained inconclusive today with the former insisting that the security concerns with regard to monitoring have to be addressed.

Research In Motion (RIM), the Canada-based company which offers BlackBerry services, has told DoT that it will come back with a monitoring solution but needed more time, sources said.

The move comes even as the Government and the service providers are discussing ways to address the concerns raised by the security agencies on the issue of proper monitoring of data sent through BlackBerry devices. Late last month, DoT had asked RIM to look at the possibility of setting up a server in India in case they are not willing to share the decryption code.

BlackBerry services had run into rough weather after security agencies expressed concern that they could not monitor the data being sent through the device due to the high encryption codes.

According to Indian Internet services rules, operators are not allowed to use more than 40 bit encryption code unless they submit a decryption key to the Government.

RIM, which uses more than 128 bit encryption codes to make the transmission secure, has refused to submit the decryption codes on the grounds that it was proprietary.

At present, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, BPL and Reliance Communications are offering BlackBerry services in the country to about 4 lakh subscribers.

Tata Teleservices also wants to offer the service but was stopped by DoT after security agencies raised concerns about monitoring. Locating a server in India will allow the security agencies to monitor traffic at the gateway without having to break into the BlackBerry’s secure transmission codes.

More Stories on : Telecommunications | Regulatory Bodies & Rulings | Security

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