Blackberry Providers Once Again under DoT Scanner

Blackberry Providers Once Again under DoT Scanner

Techtree News Staff, Apr 14, 2008 1750 hrs IST

As per new telecom guidelines unveiled last year, RIM and Blackberry service providers need to have a hosting agreement; DoT has stepped in to ensure this.

Issues with Blackberry services in India seem nowhere near ending; once again, Research in Motion (RIM) and Blackberry service providers are under the Department of Telecom (DoT) scanner.

According to a reputed financial daily, the DoT along with national security agencies is now examining why Indian service providers, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, BPL, and Reliance Communications -- who have a partnership with RIM -- have a routing agreement and not a hosting agreement as is required under Indian law.

The raging debate over Blackberry services since March this year has revealed that all communication between Blackberry owners in the country is routed through a server located outside of the country, which is against Indian law. As per new telecom guidelines unveiled last year -- control of remote access that includes activation, transfer of data, and termination -- has to be within the country and not at a remote location abroad. The new guidelines require RIM and Blackberry service providers to have a hosting agreement necessitating exchange of data and communication to be saved on servers of Indian service providers as against the existing routing agreement which allows such exchange of data and communication to be hosted on servers outside of the country.

DoT has therefore decided to intervene to check if the existing commercial agreements between RIM and service providers are in accordance with the new telecom guidelines.