Islamabad: Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Monday asked mobile telephone operators to stop BlackBerry services to foreign missions in the country amid concern about the security of the communications.
Sources said that Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) had asked mobile phone operators to stop all Blackberry services to foreign missions.
Sources in the mobile operators companies confirmed that the PTA had asked them to stop BlackBerry services. But, PTA chairman denied that the authority have issued any such orders to mobile operators.
PTA Chairman Dr Yaseen said the authority has asked all the mobile operators to ensure BlackBerry service to foreign diplomats.
However, sources in PTA insisted that the instructions have been issued to the mobile operators to suspended BlackBerry services to foreign mission in the country. They said that the decision to stop BlackBerry services to foreign mission was taken after the incident of Lahore shoot out, wherein an official of US Embassy shot death two youth and another was crushed to death by a back up vehicle of US consulate in Lahore, which came to the rescue of the official.
It is to be mentioned here that BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) has been buffeted by demands for access to its encrypted data from several countries, including India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), worried by security and social mores.
Government officials say that they had never allowed BlackBerry services to foreign missions and inbound roamers when the services were launched in Pakistan in 2005.
The government also initially banned the more secure BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) services in Pakistan.
BES allows users to send and receive secure email and messages, which is difficult for governments to intercept and read.
An industry source said that the government had asked all operators in the country to enforce the restrictions.
“The most critical issue is the provision of BlackBerry services to the foreign embassies, missions and high commissions,” said the source.
“Therefore, all the operators have agreed to close all BlackBerry connections provided to them by January 31,” he said, adding discussions would be held with the PTA to gain more time on the provision of BES to local customers as well as BlackBerry services to incoming roamers.
Last year, India demanded access to all BlackBerry services as part of efforts to fight militancy and security threats over the Internet and through telephone communications.
Last week, RIM said there was no possibility of providing India access to corporate emails on BlackBerry devices
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