RIM said talking local servers to end BBM limits

RIM is considering the possibility of hosting servers in Saudi Arabia to put an end to a BlackBerry Messenger ban in the country, sources said Friday. Contacts outside of RIM, but aware of the talks, said a proposal to the Communications and Information Technology Commission has data from the instant messaging client route through local servers first before heading to RIM's Canadian headquarters. Alternately, a patch would be in place to allow access in the event of urgent problems.

No officials have confirmed the Reuters leaks, but Al-Hayat cited its own insider pointing to local servers. As a component of any deal, though, a separate, newer source understood RIM was insisting on a blanket policy that treated all three national carriers equally rather than requiring separate discussions.

The smartphone designer is being characterized as unusually flexible in the face of the ban, which appeared to have taken effect earlier on Friday but has since been reported as functional by others. In addition to possibly losing some of its 700,000 Saudi customers, it could also affect tourists and workers wanting to use BBM locally even if their phones are from outside of the country.

Officially, RIM has taken a hard stance on security and has said it would never offer a special favor to a country or compromise privacy just to hold on to sales. Doubts also exist that a Saudi-hosted server would achieve the intended effect due to the nature of BlackBerry data traffic. As messages are only encrypted on the ends of the sender and recipient, Saudi Arabia's CITC would still have to crack the encryption to discover the contents.

An accurate rumor would imply that the nearby UAE and Lebanon, as well as India and other concerned countries, might have been given simliar propostlas.

By Electronista Staff