With only one day remaining before the Indian government was set to pull the plug on its popular BlackBerry smartphones, Research In Motion has hammered out a compromise with the country’s Ministry of Home Affairs and Department of Telecommunications.
As Enterprise Mobile Today reports, the deal includes a concession that will allow at least one RIM server to be located in India, giving India’s government and law enforcement agencies the ability to better monitor communications for possible illicit or terrorism-related content.
“Government of India have been having discussions with RIM Canada over the last few weeks on the issue of lawful access by the law enforcement agencies to the communications passing through RIM systems,” the ministry said in a statement. “RIM have made certain proposals for lawful access by law enforcement agencies and these would be operationalized immediately. The feasibility of the solutions offered would be assessed thereafter.”
Research In Motion (RIM) managed to create some breathing room for itself Monday in its standoff with the government of India over whether the popular BlackBerry mobile devices would get banned in the country.
In a statement on Monday, India’s Ministry of Home Affairs said its Department of Telecommunications would take 60 days to review solutions proposed by the Canadian company. The announcement comes one day before the deadline originally imposed by the Indian government.
The Indian government, along with the governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, want to be able to tap into and monitor mobile communications traffic for national security purposes, including the traffic on RIM’s (NASDAQ: RIMM) BlackBerry service.