As the government struggles to put in place a mechanism to lawfully intercept messages on BlackBerry services, it has received help from US-based Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), which has the largest membership of telecom service and technology providers in the world. Interestingly, Canada-based Research in Motion (RIM), which markets BlackBerry services across the world and is its patent holder, is also a member of TIA.
The TIA has said it will make available some of the world?s leading policy and technical experts and ensure that its member companies respond to the specific needs of India?s law enforcement and intelligence agencies. The body has also said it has helped governments in US, UK and Japan to develop national encryption policies.
While welcoming the fact that the Centre is keen to protect its telecom networks and develop effective policies to ensure that critical information can be accessed on a real-time basis, the TIA has expressed its concern that the exercise is being undertaken without consulting the private sector.
In a letter written to home minister P Chidambaram, whose ministry is piloting the exercise to put in place an encryption and lawful interception mechanism for BlackBerry services, TIA president Grant Seiffert said, ?Over the past two decades, the US government and the private sector have grappled with these same challenges. As a result, we believe that our associations and member companies can provide valuable assistance as your government develops new strategies and policies related to telecommunications infrastructure security. We therefore, propose a formal and comprehensive security dialogue to identify these challenges and work collaboratively to develop innovative solutions. This dialogue could fall under the auspices of the US-India Information and Communications Technology Dialogue and would include relevant stakeholders in both the countries?.
This is not the first time that BlackBerry services have faced problems in India. The issue came up for the first time in March, 2008 when, due to the lack of a lawful interception facility, the home ministry had asked RIM to set up its proxy server in India. RIM officials had then declined to set up servers in India due to the costs involved and due to the fact that the country had merely 100,000 BlackBerry subscribers then. The issue had later died down. BlackBerry?s server is located in Canada.
Recently, however, the home ministry has again renewed its demand. Reports that RIM has set up a server in neighbouring China have made matters worse.
A home ministry official had recently said that RIM had assured it of addressing the concerns of the government.