Global News: Gulf States Plan to Implement Blackberry Ban

As per global news reports, the Gulf states expressed concern about the encryption technology that is used in Blackberry devices. The technology used in mobile devices makes it difficult to monitor them.

The United Arab Emirates has banned cell phone users from availing the email, instant-messaging and web-browsing services, on their Blackberry mobile devices. This decision was taken in response to a long-running battle, over security issues, with the maker of Blackberry devices, the Research in Motion (RIM).

Global News: UAE Says Ban is About Non-Compliance with Regulatory Norms

Based on global news reports, the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of the UAE states that the ban will be applicable till October 11, 2010. Further, the ban was imposed due to failure of attempts to bring Blackberry services, in accordance with the UAE telecoms regulations. Further, the regulatory authority said that the ban was not initiated with the intent of censorship. The ban was imposed due to the RIM’s failure to adhere with the regulatory norms.

The authority also produced a detailed comparison of the telecoms regulation in the UAE, the U.K. and the U.S. Further, the Director General of the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority, Mohammed al-Ghanim, stated that the RIM was not asked to do anything, which is not followed in the developed countries.

The two service providers in the UAE, Etisalat and Du, informed about the ban, to the consumers, via text messages. Remember, there are nearly half a million Blackberry consumers in the UAE.

As per global news reports, Saudi Arabia is all set to ban Blackberry messenger services. Typically, the Blackberry mobile devices access the Internet and email through RIM’s personal network and uses specialized encryption. This makes them more secure. However, few countries, including India, have expressed concerns about the difficulty to monitor terrorists and criminal activities, executed by such devices.