DoT wants BlackBerry servers in India

DoT on Friday asked Canada’s Research In Motion (RIM)—the BlackBerry smartphone developer—to set up servers in India. This was conveyed at a meeting between DoT officials, security agencies, company executives, Canadian High Commission representatives and telecom operators.

Government sources told ET that operators like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, BPL and Reliance Communications, which offer BlackBerry services in India, supported the DoT’s demand. RIM has sought more time to respond to the DoT request, they added.

It’s also learnt that in the meeting, DoT officials had categorically pointed out to RIM that only emails between one BlackBerry device to another was under the scanner of Indian security agencies. A government source close to the development told ET: “RIM offers many services here. All of them are interceptable, except for emails sent between one BlackBerry device to another BlackBerry device. It is only this part we want to address.”

Friday’s meeting was the latest that DoT officials and security agency representatives have had with RIM executives to address security concerns associated with BlackBerry services. If RIM agrees to the DoT request, the company will have to migrate all data traffic originating from Indian mobile networks to servers located in India. At present, BlackBerry’s email traffic in India is hosted on RIM’s overseas servers (primarily in Canada), which cannot be lawfully intercepted by security agencies.

ET had reported that DoT was exploring the possibility of asking RIM to set up servers in India. Emails between BlackBerry owners in India bypass local networks and directly hit RIM’s servers in Canada. But a BlackBerry email accessed by an end user on a PC or handset passes through the internet network in India, which is being monitored by security agencies. “We are already compliant with emails sent from BlackBerry to other devices and email addresses accessed on computers. It is only BlackBerry to BlackBerry that needs to be monitored,” said a source.