The UAE’s telecoms regulator has announced that BlackBerry services in the country will be suspended from 11 October this year.
The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) said that the suspension was due to the failure of ongoing attempts since 2007 to bring BlackBerry services in the country in line with local regulations. “.. is open to misuse that poses security risks to the UAE”
“With no solution available and in the public interest, in order to affect resolution of this issue, as of October 11, 2010, Blackberry Messenger, Blackberry Email and Blackberry Web-browsing services will be suspended until an acceptable solution can be developed and applied,” TRA director general Mohamed Al Ghanim said in a statement.
UAE telcos Etisalat and du have confirmed they will comply with the TRA’s decision to suspend certain BlackBerry services starting October 11, 2010.
The two operators each issued short statements, in which they confirmed they were looking to deliver alternative solutions to BlackBerry customers who face being unable to use services providing email, web browsing, instant messaging and social networking.
Du said that customers would be able to continue using their BlackBerry devices for Voice, SMS, MMS and web browsing, but not using the BlackBerry service. It added that other applications which do not use BlackBerry services will remain unaffected
Gulf state Bahrain in April warned against the use of BlackBerry Messenger software to distribute local news, drawing criticism from media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) which called it an act of censorship.
Research In Motion Ltd’s BlackBerry service may also be banned in India unless the Canadian company agrees to resolve security concerns, it was reported earlier this year .
Research In Motion had some services blocked in neighboring Pakistan this year where the national telecommunications regulator said it blocked Internet browsers on BlackBerry handsets, citing concerns over blasphemy
Stephen
