State-owned telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) will launch BlackBerry services by April. BSNL Chairman and Managing Director, Kuldeep Goyal informed the media about the BlackBerry services on the sidelines of a conference in New Delhi. He said that, BSNL has got the required approvals from the government and will launch BlackBerry services by next month.

 

At present, four telecom operators in the country are providing BlackBerry services. They are Reliance Communications, Airtel, Vodafone and Tata Teleservices. BlackBerry phones offer a host of advanced services, including allowing users to access their e-mail on the move. BlackBerry devices are manufactured by the Canada-based Research In Motion (RIM).

 

BlackBerry phones had earlier, come under scrutiny of the Indian government. This was after Indian security agencies expressed concern that the data being transmitted through the device could not be intercepted because the manufacturing company is using high encryption codes. However, in February, Canadian Minister of Industry Tony Clement held a meeting with India's communications Minister A. Raja to sort out the problem. After the meeting Clement said that, the security concerns over the BlackBerry phones had been resolved as far as possible.