U.A.E. Threatens to Ban BlackBerry Services

RIM has long touted the security of its BlackBerry device, a feature that has made the handset a favorite of government and corporate clients. RIM trades heavily on the assurance that sensitive data stored and transmitted with a BlackBerry will not fall into the wrong hands.

But the company is now facing pressure from the government of the United Arab Emirates, which has threatened to shut down certain BlackBerry Internet services, complaining that RIM’s policy of routing traffic at distributed operation centers around the world makes it impossible to monitor the contents of people’s messages and Web habits.

The U.A.E. government says this is necessary to maintain its security operations, but many corporate clients won’t likely be thrilled with the prospect of a government snooping on their communications. Enterprise Mobile Today takes a look.

The of the United Arab Emirates is reportedly set to ban BlackBerry e-mail, instant messaging and Web browsing services in the country starting Oct. 11. According to the Wall Street Journal and several other news reports, the ban was issued by the country’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) on Sunday and will not affect voice and text-messaging services.

The U.A.E. objects to BlackBerry maker Research in Motion’s (NASDAQ: RIMM) use of Network Operations Centers (NOCs) in different parts of the world to process and encrypt e-mail and Web traffic, which makes it difficult to monitor users’ electronic communications, a practice the government says is an integral piece of its security activities.

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U.A.E. Set to Ban BlackBerry Services?