Tata Teleservices (TSL) intends to go ahead with its plan to introduce BlackBerry services for its customers, despite the fact that it was asked by the government not to do so due to security reasons. BlackBerry is a wireless email solution for mobile professionals that provide easy access to one’s business email wherever the user went. Indian security agencies recently voiced apprehensions that data sent over BlackBerry could efficiently be transmitted through an encrypted security layer. As such, TSL was asked to halt the launch of BlackBerry services.

 

But going against the dictation of the government, TSL has said that the delay was proving to be too costly for it due to loss of business opportunity and chronic revenues. The Indian security agencies, on the other hand, are unable to do something about this problem because the data sent over a BlackBerry is stored in RIM's own servers in Canada and hence, out of their purview.

 

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is India is seeking to solve this issue by either asking RIM to shift servers for Indian networks to this country or make copies of e-mails and data sent over these devices in India and store the same for at least six months. BlackBerry services in India are offered by carriers like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, BPL and Reliance Communications. Previous month, TSL informed that the home ministry had denied it authorization for introducing its own BlackBerry services due to security concerns.