In limbo

New Delhi, April 10: BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) and the government today failed to arrive at a consensus on monitoring e-mails between two BlackBerry mobiles, prolonging security concerns over the use of the device.

At a meeting today among officials of the department of telecommunications (DoT), intelligence agencies and the representatives of Canada-based RIM, options on monitoring e-mails by security agencies were discussed.

However, in the absence of a single solution addressing all security concerns, the group decided to meet again on April 21.

Security agencies have access to messages from BlackBerry devices to Internet e-mail accounts but not from one BlackBerry mobile to another as they are in a code form.

Besides, the servers that store these messages are located abroad and are beyond the reach of the agencies.

These have generated fears of the device falling into wrong hands and posing threat to the nation’s security.

Among the options discussed today at the meeting was a proxy server where e-mails and data of BlackBerrys in India would be stored for six months.

This is RIM’s strategy in China and Singapore to allay the fears of the two governments.

Another option was a full-fledged RIM server in India to allow monitoring without RIM disclosing BlackBerry’s secure transmission codes. Such a server costs around $500,000.

RIM could also provide translation, or encryption, codes to the government, which requires an agreement between the governments of India and Canada.

In India, Blackberry services are provided by Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, Reliance Communications and BPL.

Concerns over BlackBerry arose earlier this year when the home ministry denied permission to Tata Teleservices to offer the service.

Several meetings have already been held between RIM and the government.