UAE decides not to ban BlackBerry

The United Arab Emirates, one of the countries that have banned the use of blackberry smartphones this year, decided on Friday to refuse to accept this ban, which was due to take effect this Monday. Naturally, not just like that, but after reaching a consensus with the device manufacturer, Research In Motion.

The telecommunications regulatory authority said that Blackberry services now fit into the regulatory framework of the UAE, and that all services of this brand will be resumed from Monday

It is not entirely clear whether any concessions were made by RIM in order to avoid a ban. The British representative RIM was not available to clarify the situation. However, the UAE authorities assured that RIM is one of the leading global manufacturers of smartphones located in Canada, showed a positive desire to come to a mutually beneficial agreement, or rather even a compromise on the part of RIM, because it is unlikely that the Emirates made concessions unless from leaving the company from the UAE.

Some analyst says that, most likely, the cancellation of the decision to block RIM’s activities is a result of the company agreeing to abandon its own principles and share information about encryption with the UAE authorities, although it resisted for a long time, citing the unacceptability of such a step. But it seems that the interests of shareholders are more important than the interests of customers.
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Either the UAE allowed RIM to provide a full range of services, incl. and encryption, in full, realizing that the potential threat from this is minimal. But most likely, the parties have found a technical move, when the government of the UAE in extreme cases will be able to access the BlackBerry using encryption keys. The question here is rather political, not technical - what is considered extreme, right?

If the ban were nevertheless introduced, this would create unpleasant tension between the business elite and the UAE government, which cannot be allowed, due to their close connection.

Still, Dubai is an air hub, as well as one of the financial centers of the world, and the inability to check email or open the necessary site would hardly have delighted businessmen.

At the beginning of the year, the governments of Saudi Arabia and India expressed concern about the unwillingness of RIM to cooperate with the investigation with the state. organs. An encrypted email channel is one of the important success factors for BlackBerry corporate email and, at the same time, a headache for government services. According to the company, no decoding method exists. However, in the UAE, a method, apparently, was found.

In Saudi Arabia, they were threatened with the same ban, while the authorities of India (one of the fastest growing markets of RIM) promised to wait two months (it was in August) from RIM, with how the latter would be able to provide access to encrypted channels for law enforcement.

via nytimes.com