UAE Bans Blackberry Services Starting October 11th
Over last weekend, United Arab Emirates (UAE) issued an official notification that starting October 11, the country will suspend BlackBerry e-mail, messaging and Web browsing services but not the phone feature.
The UAE consists of seven states, termed emirates, which are Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah,Ajman, Umm al-Quwain, Ras al-Khaimah and Fujairah. The capital and second largest city of the United Arab Emirates is Abu Dhabi.
The decision will impact about 500,000 BlackBerry subscribers in the busy business centric UAE as well as visitors using roaming services on foreign BlackBerry phones. Business travelers passing through the Dubai hub is estimated at 100,000 a day.
The main reason for the ban is the way RIM handles data on its handsets. Data is encrypted and routed through RIM servers, which reside mostly in Waterloo, Canada. The UAE contends such practice would prevent the country from monitoring illegal activities.
There is no official comments from RIM, but we expect to receive an official answer today or tomorrow, Tuesday 8/3 at the Blackberry OS 6.0 press event.
[Via CNBC]
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