Government asks operators to fix systems for interception of Blackberry services

Government has asked all telecom services providers to ensure necessary system is in place by December 31 for legal interception of Blackberry services with a solution for this being provided by the smart phone manufacturer to security agencies.

In a note, the Department of Telecom said intensive discussions have taken place on the issue of intercepting the services provided by Canada-based Research-In-Motion (RIM), manufacturers of the smart phones, but the Telecom Services Providers (TSPs) have not been implementing the interception solution in respect of Blackberry services offered by them.

"...therefore, we may ask all the TSPs to comply with the Blackberry Interception requirement by December 31, 2012," the note said.

The note said that RIM had been asked to provide resolution and web-browsing requirements in respect of Blackberry Internet Service (BIS) in consultation with the TSPs and their lawful interception vendors. RIM has agreed to place a server in Mumbai in this connection, it added.

TSPs were asked to be ready with the system to be connected to the RIM server and deployment of a solution for the interception of Blackberry services.

"The response has been received from all TSPs except MTNL," the note said, adding that the responses of telecom service providers varied from two months to four months.

Blackberry had complied with the requirements of the probe agencies after their services were red-flagged on the security issues as the interception was not in the readable format.