MUMBAI (Reuters) – Mobile phone operators are seeking more talks todiscuss Indian government security concerns which a newspaper saidcould lead to the termination of BlackBerry services in India, anindustry official said on Wednesday.
The Business Standard, citing unnamed sources, reported that Indiansecurity agencies want BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion to give them access to algorithms needed to decrypt messages, or face a termination of the service at the end of March.
"We have met them (the government) more than once and we are tryingto meet them again," T.V. Ramachandran, director general of thenine-member Cellular Operators’ Association of India, told Reuters.
"Government wants some security concerns to be addressed and we aretrying for an effective dialogue with the security agencies and thedepartment of telecommunications," he said.
The paper said security agencies, the department oftelecommunications, RIM executives and Indian operators offeringBlackBerry services would meet on March 14, although this could not beconfirmed.
"RIM operates in more than 130 countries around the world andrespects the regulatory requirements of governments. RIM does notcomment on confidential regulatory matters or speculation on suchmatters in any given country," a spokeswoman in Hong Kong said.
One analyst said it would not make sense for RIM to disclose its algorithms as that was their competitive advantage.
"Although the government’s concerns are genuine … there is no needto make too much out of it," said Kaustubh Dhavse, program manager, ICTpractice for South Asia and Middle East at consultancy Frost &Sullivan.
"RIM has been there for many years and they have businesses in manycountries. So what they need to do is they have to assure the nodalagency that any malpractice won’t happen. And the operators need tohave their own safeguard in place."
The Business Standard said BlackBerry had an estimated 400,000subscribers in India, while Dhavse put it at more than half a million.
RIM’s spokesman for India, Satchit Gayakwad, said BlackBerry services were offered in India by four providers, Vodafone, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and BPL Mobile.
He said BlackBerry had 12 million customers worldwide in December.
(Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; additional reporting by Judy Huain Hong Kong; Writing by Charlotte Cooper; Editing by John Mair)
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