BlackBerry sets up server in Mumbai, finally

After much controversy, BlackBerry has finally set up its server in Mumbai following intense pressure from the government to provide a mechanism for lawful interception of its messenger services and Nokia has been asked to follow suit.

During a high-level meeting at the Union Home Ministry recently, officials of the security agencies were informed that Canada-based Research in Motion has installed the servers in Mumbai.

The servers have been inspected by a team of officers and permission for direct linkage for lawful interception was expected to be issued shortly, a presentation made at the meeting held in the office of the home secretary said.

About the Nokia Push Mail, the Department of Telecom also prescribed a similar policy as in the case adopted by the BlackBerry, the presentation said.

The government and BlackBerry manufacturers were in a logjam over its services in India as security agencies had raised a red flag over its operations citing non-availability of method to intercept its messenger service and enterprise mail.

However, there was a climb-down by the government on intercepting mail sent through BlackBerry Enterprise Services (BES) which decrypts the messages and sends it to email server of the service provider where it remains stored in decrypted form. Then the message is pushed to the BlackBerry device in encrypted form.