With no solution emerging from its recent tussle with Research in Motion (RIM) over its BlackBerry services, the Indian government is now planning to approach its Canadian counterpart for a special agreement to gain full access to BlackBerry services.
Inspired by a similar deal between the US and Canada where RIM is providing all intercepting facilities to the US under a “government-to-government” agreement, this will force RIM to provide the same facilities, including corporate email, to the Indian security agencies.
It has been confirmed that such an agreement would be feasible for India, and a government official indicated that the matter had also been raised during recent talks between Indian security officials and the Canadian National Security Advisor.
According to the Economic Times, Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is now examining reports from RIM and various telecom operators on the government’s demand for interception facilities to all BlackBerry services, including BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES).
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Previously, Indian authorities had pushed RIM to open up its messaging and email services, imposing a two week deadline on the company failing which the company would find all its services blocked in the country.
RIM had provided solutions to the Indian security agencies allowing access to BlackBerry messaging and email services on consumer handsets. However, its enterprise services remained unavailable, due to the fact the service incorporates a strict encryption algorithm that the company is not able to access, let alone provide access to a third-party. India, however, refused this limited access offer and had demanded full access to BlackBerry services.
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