UAE says BBerry service ban is real

The United Arab Emirates today stressed that its ban of BlackBerry services on October 11 was "final" and wouldn't be changed. The director of the Arab city-states' Telecoms Regulatory Authority, Mohammed Al Ghanem, insisted the restrictions on e-mail, messaging and the web wouldn't be changed as long as they didn't allow the country to spy on messages. The UAE was "open to discussions," but only if they allowed the monitoring, Al Ghanem said.

The two main providers in the country, Etisalat and Du, have been emphatic that they will have their own alternatives to the services, but they didn't say what these would be or how they would avoid any centralized, encrypted access on RIM's servers.

Despite the promised filler, the ban could cost RIM a significant amount of market share in the UAE. Recent checks put 500,000 BlackBerry owners in the small nation, many of them the businessmen that have been crucial to the UAE's core oil and tourism businesses. Without BlackBerries, some are more likely to turn to Android or iPhone devices that can offer many features stock without facing a ban.

RIM is facing one of the harsher weeks in its history as it's facing a partial ban in Saudi Arabia and push-back from India, which has been embroiled in a long standoff with RIM over the ability to spy on e-mail. Saudi Arabia was said to be in last-minute talks to avert a ban but isn't likely to change its position before the Friday imposition.

RIM has so far insisted that it not only won't compromise the security of customers but that it can't. As the encryption is complete and generated only by the sending and receiving ends, the Canadian company itself has no more access to the information than local governments.

By Electronista Staff