Saudis call off BlackBerry Messenger ban

Several states are now in active dialogue with RIM over their BlackBerry concerns

Saudi Arabia will not immediately ban the use of BlackBerry Messenger as threatened following changes made by RIM in the way data is sent and stored in the country.

The Saudi Communications and Technology Commission (CITC) said that " positive developments in completing parts of regulatory requirements from mobile telecommunication providers has been noticed", according to the Saudi Press Agency.

"CITC permits the continuation of BlackBerry Messenger services in addition to the continuation of joint work with service providers to fulfil the remaining requirements," it added.

The announcement comes after RIM apparently reached an agreement with the Saudi government to give the authorities greater control over its data services by installing a server in the country.

However, the changes seem to be at odds with an initial statement by the BlackBerry maker which claimed that neither RIM nor any third party could access data sent through its servers.

"The BlackBerry enterprise solution was designed to preclude RIM, or any third party, from reading encrypted information under any circumstances, since RIM does not store or have access to the encrypted data," the company said last week.

"RIM cannot accommodate any request for a copy of a customer's encryption key since at no time does RIM, or any wireless network operator or any third party, ever possess a copy of the key."

The United Arab Emirates has also threatened to cancel key services such as BlackBerry Messenger if similar concerns are not met by 11 October.