RIM, Indian officials to meet again over BlackBerry concerns

The talks between officials of the Canada-based Research in Motion (RIM) and authorities here over India's security concerns on the use of BlackBerry-enabled mobile phone services remained inconclusive Thursday, but the two sides decided to meet again.

"We will meet again to resolve the issue with the RIM," said an official of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

According to the official, the two sides discussed the probable solutions for the impasse over the BlackBerry services in India.

The Indian government is understood to have reiterated its security concerns on the use of BlackBerry-enabled mobile phones and asked RIM to share security codes.

The RIM officials were accompanied at the meeting by representatives from the Canadian embassy here.

The communication and information technology ministry had earlier written to RIM, asking it to put up servers in India, which would help securities agencies to monitor its services.

"This is to enable the security agencies to track emails and other messages as and when the need arises," said the official.

India's security agencies have pointed out that BlackBerry's email device poses a risk as emails sent using it cannot be traced or intercepted.

But RIM told the government it was not possible to share the security codes with it as its servers were located in Canada.

The government, in reply, asked RIM to put its servers in India.

Communications and IT Minister A. Raja recently said the Canadian firm had assured the government to come out with a solution in two months.

Telecom operators Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Vodafone Essar and BPL Mobile are offering the BlackBerry services in India to over 1,14,000 customers.

BlackBerry services, introduced in India in October 2004, came under the government's scanner last year when an application by Tata Teleservices to launch a similar service was rejected over security concerns.san/am/vt

(341 Words)*29052157NNNN (IANS)

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