A day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called for a better coordination between security agencies and telecom stakeholders to combat terrorism, Telecom Secretary Sidhharth Behura today said there is no problem with Blackberry smartphones.
"There is no issue on Blackberry as far as we are concerned," Behura said.
Department of telecommunication and intelligence agencies have long been demanding access to data on Blackberry phones, which is available only to the owners of the handset.
Asked if it has been resolved with RIM, the Canada based smartphone maker of Blackberry, he said, "Ask the security (agencies) people..."
RIM executives had met senior DoT officials recently.
Launch of a new touch-screen Blackberry handset in India has got caught in a security web, although it is yet to be ascertained if the premium mobile service was used by terrorists to plan the last month's attacks in Mumbai.
Much before the Mumbai attacks, the Wireless Planning Coordination wing of the Communications Ministry had asked for clearance from the security wing for allowing launch of the handset on security concerns.
The concerns were aired ahead of a proposed visit of a team of Blackberry promoters for discussions with the DoT officials on security issues.
"It is understood that Blackberry equipment uses encrypted data for e-mail transmission through a gateway outside our country," the WPC wing of DoT said in an internal communication to the security wing.
The issue has arisen with respect to approval for a new device -- touchscreen Blackberry Storm 9500 -- that the Canadian vendor of Blackberry RIM plans to launch in India.
WPC has referred the approval of Bluetooth certification for the Blackberry Storm to the full ministry for clearance citing questions over its legality.
© Copyright 2024 PTI. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of PTI content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent.
