Emirates to Block Blackberry Messages: 'Too Secure'

by Jordan Yerman | August 2, 2010 at 10:54 am

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United Arab Emirates to Ban Blackberry Email & Messaging

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will block transmission of Blackberry email and messaging. The reason: Blackberry is too secure, and the Emirates was unable to snoop the contents of the messages.

Research in Motion (RIM), which runs the Blackberry network, refuses to compromise its platform, so the ban will come into effect in October 11, 2010.

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RIM was put in a position to either pander to one market or compromise a major selling point of its product, and it chose Option A. Meanwhile, Emirates is framing this as a compliance issue.

The Emirates' telecoms regulator said Monday that travelers to the city-state of Dubai and the important oil industry center of Abu Dhabi will — like the 500,000 local subscribers — have to do without BlackBerry e-mail, messaging and Web services starting in October.

“My feeling is that this does seem to be brinkmanship,” he says. “I would also be surprised if it is implemented. The BlackBerry has become such an important business tool ... and ties into the wider objectives of the UAE being a commercial centre for the region.”