UAE sticks to its guns on BlackBerry

The Telecom Regulatory Authority is of the view that RIM will have to abide by UAE’s demands. (FILE)

Published Tuesday, August 31, 2010

By Joseph George

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of the UAE on Tuesday said it is sticking to its deadline given to BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) although negotiations with the Canada-based manufacturer are continuing.

A spokesperson for the TRA told Emirates 24|7 that TRA’s position is that BlackBerry services would be stopped from October 11 as earlier announced.

“Negotiations are on. We cannot announce the details. But so far no concrete solutions have been reached,” said the official.

Asked if there is any chance for an agreement with the UAE following a similar announcement with India, the official said India and the UAE are two different markets and that RIM will have to abide by UAE’s demands.

India announced that it is withdrawing its threat to ban BlackBerry devices for another 60 days after RIM agreed to give authorities 'lawful access' to encrypted data carried on its servers.

In a statement issued to news agency WAM earlier this month, Mohammed Al Ghanem, Director-General of TRA, had said that its decision to suspend certain BlackBerry services from October 11 is final.

Meanwhile, according to a spokesperson, the alternate packages announced by telecom service providers would become active as the deadline nears.

“Telecom operators here have announced attractive alternative packages. So the situation is being taken care of. The packages would be activated when the deadline nears,” she said.

Meanwhile, several BlackBerry users said they are already experiencing difficulties with using the Messenger service.

“I have subscribed to the BlackBerry service through etisalat for the past one year. But since last three days I have been experiencing constant problems with the service. Every time I send a message using the BlackBerry service, it takes almost 25 to 30 minutes to reach the recipient. As a result we end up calling each other. It has already ceased to be an Instant Messenger service,” said Manal Ahmad from Dubai.

Similarly, Samara Sehgal, another subscriber of the service through etisalat, said: “When I send messages through the messenger the lag time is too high. There is an average delay of 10 minutes. At times it just does not deliver at all. Sometimes the system itself freezes. It has been happening for the last one week.”

“All of us have now shifted to Google’s Gtalk as it is much faster,” he added.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.

The page was last updated on: 10 January 2016 05:06