Indonesia may block BlackBerry service over Singapore envy
updated 12:20 pm EST, Fri December 9, 2011
Rebuffs RIM after it chooses Singapore for servers
Malaysian government officials have threatened to end RIM's BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service in that country. This rebuff comes after RIM chose to place a new server operation in Singapore. The Indonesian Telecommunication Regulation Body (BRTI) claimed to The Jakarta Post that the potential action is due to security reasons.
Currently, RIM processes all its BBM messages through its home base in Canada. In September, RIM made several commitments to the BRTI, including one to establish a datacenter or server farm by the end of this year. RIM did not agree to specifically locate it in Indonesia, and chose instead to place it in Singapore. RIM has a much larger customer base in Indonesia, but Singapore is a communications gateway frequently used by multinational companies for networking in Asia and the Pacific.
The BRTI took offense to the decision and has indicated in strongly worded terms that they will no longer allow RIM to offer BBM in Indonesia. "Because RIM has not been cooperative, it is possible that we will soon end BIS (BlackBerry Internet Service) and BBM service," stated BRTI member Heru Sutadi, "BlackBerry therefore, would just be like other cellular phones."
Sutadi added "We warn that the country’s users to be cautious about using BlackBerry because the data exchanged is not safe or cannot be guaranteed of its safety."
His warning is ironic because RIM currently processes BBM communications through its Canadian servers. It is handled as as encrypted data, which the Indonesian government and any other can't monitor or read.
