RIM fears of getting singled out in India
Canada based Research in Motion has shown its concern of losing business in India because of strict government regulations. RIM said in a statement that its competitors are at an advantage in India, as Indian policy makers may single out BlackBerry, citing security concerns.
Responding to this accusation by BlackBerry, Indian Government once again assured that RIM won't be singled out by any regulation on encryption based services and products. RIM accused unnamed competitors of attempting to make profits from its troubles in India.
The company believes that if it continues, BlackBerry will be singled out as other competitors who have products based on technology similar to BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) will pass government scrutiny. However RIM has said in a statement on Tuesday that top Indian government officials have assured company that they won't single out RIM on any policy related to "lawful access" to encrypted enterprise or Virtual Private Networks (VPN) will be same for all products and services employing data encryption in India.
RIM also refused reports that company was given a deadline of 31, Jan. 2011 to provide access to communications on BES to Indian government. Instead, RIM said, it was a mutually decided date set to find a solution to Indian law enforcement agencies to RIM's consumer messaging services like BlackBerry Messenger and BlackBerry Internet Service email.
RIM has maintained its standpoint of not providing technical access to BES. So, Indian government is reportedly moving ahead to demand access to communications on BES from mobile operators.
Mobile operators are bound to Indian laws, which allow law enforcement agencies to ask for any data. RIM rejected this solution of Indian government clarifying neither RIM nor the telecom operator has access to the secret key of encryption.
Only users handset has that key. Meanwhile discussions go on, RIM is busy making it sure that all competitors who are providing end to end encryption are properly scrutinized by government.
Without naming, RIM release referred to Apple, Cisco, Good Technology, Google, Hewlett-Packard, HTC, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson as competitors as they are using encryption on consumer communication in India.