Research in Motion avoids UAE BlackBerry ban

BlackBerry users in the UAE can rest easy

Research in Motion (RIM) has managed to avoid a ban in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on its BlackBerry service after appeasing the country's telecoms authorities.

A statement released by the country's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) confirmed BlackBerry services are now compliant with the country's regulatory framework and as such said the threat of a ban was now lifted.

"The TRA has confirmed today that all BlackBerry services in the UAE will continue to operate as normal and no suspension of service will occur on October 11, 2010," it said.

"The TRA would like to acknowledge the positive engagement and collaboration of Research in Motion in reaching this regulatory compliant outcome."

No information was given on the specific changes RIM had made to appease the authorities and questions to the TRA from V3.co.uk went unanswered.

In a statement RIM said it could not discuss any details relating to regulatory matters, but instead reiterated a statement it made on 12 August.

"RIM confirms that it continues to approach lawful access matters internationally within the framework of core principles that were publicly communicated by RIM on 12 August," it said.

Ovum principal analyst Tony Cripps said the decision was obviously good news for RIM and its users but said he would be surprised if RIM had given up its core values of security on its systems to appease the authorities.

"RIM itself has said nothing on the statement but has previously been very clear that it would not change the architecture of the BlackBerry services to placate countries who found its extremely tight security objectionable," he said.

"We can only hypothesise that some kind of workaround has been agreed between the UAE regulator and local carriers to gain access to emails sent over the BlackBerry service at a point in the delivery process that is outside of RIM’s control."

The end of the threat of a ban in the UAE will no doubt come as a relief to RIM, which has spent the last few months having to deal with similar security concerns in other nations including India and Saudi Arabia.

Authorities in these nations have all cited concerns with the way data sent between BlackBerry devices is encrypted and stored remotely, which they have argued poses a security risk.

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