Count down begins for blackberry

With just one day left for the makers of Blackberry RIM to respond to Indian Government's deadline asking for access to their ultra-encrypted messenger and email services approaches, Research in Motion (RIM) has still maintained its earlier stand of its inability to provide complete access to its main server denying to provide the encrypted corporate information.

Putting the future of a million-plus Blackberry smart phones users in India coming under dark cloud, RIM in it's latest press release has clarified that it does neither posses any master key nor any 'backdoor' exist in the system that would allow it or any third party, to gain access to encrypted corporate information.

Though keeping in mind the securities issues, RIM has extended itself to offer deferred encrypted data to the Indian security agencies. For instance, if the government of India has few numbers under scanner, then the government has to intimate the Canadian company with the details of the particular number. RIM can then crack the server open at its headquarter Canada and provide the required data to the security agency. But this would require a time of 10 days. Such proposal is not acceptable by the government as it may prove to be futile for India in emergency situation like that of terror attacks.

Making its position clear the maker of smart phones has also offered to set up an industry forum that would work closely with Indian with a focus on developing recommendations for policies and processes aimed at preventing the misuse of strong encryption technologies.

RIM has asserted that it maintains a consistent global standard for lawful access requirements that does not include special deals for specific countries. It has also urged for a right balancing to address both regulatory and commercial needs in this matter and has assured the Government of India of its continued support and respect for India's legal and national security requirements.

However in this tussle between the government and RIM, the market is witnessing a decline in the sale of the blackberry handsets. Report further claims that this continuing issue may cause the number of Indian Blackberry users to drop below the current figure of 11 lakhs.

The government on the other hand has also remained stern over its stand the, and has insisted on following its deadline of August 31 stating that the services "may be banned" from next month "in case no solution is provided".

The company is also facing list of growing ban threats in four other countries namely United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Indonesia.

Well, we have been hearing and reading a lot on RIM and government updates, but to know the final verdict on RIM's future in India, we need to wait for a day more.