Thinking of buying a BlackBerry, wait for Government clarification

In what could be termed as a blow for growth of Indian mobile and data telephony, the Department of Telecom and Home Ministry has expressed security concerns over data transfer and data monitoring on Blackberry phones.

Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance Communication is providing Blackberry services at the moment having around 5 lakh subscribers. Inorder to clear the concerns, the service providers and officials would be meeting soon.

Tata Tele’s application to offer BlackBerry services was rejected by the Home Ministry on security grounds and similar concerns are being raised for other operators too.

The issue lies in the transfer of data as the data is first encrypted in one server and then decrypted in another server, which could lead to loophole in security.

The operator say that Ministry of Home Affairs could always intercept that piece of data but if the information gets encrypted, the security agencies would not be able to break that particular piece of information.

As of now, BlackBerry service providers continue to offer services and it would be difficult for Government to take a tough call on the service as it would mean loss to existing customers as well as service providers who have made huge investments for providing these services. Source