Only RIM can provide solution to BlackBerry issue: Bharti Airtel - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Leading telecom operator Bharti Airtel has said that only the Canadian maker of BlackBerry, Research In Motion (RIM), and not service providers, can provide technical solutions to give security agencies access to services on the smartphones' email and messenger services. "Operators like us can only coordinate with RIM. We hope to see a reasonable solution on the BlackBerry issue," The Wall Street Journal quoted Sanjay Kapoor, Bharti's Chief Executive for India and South Asia, as saying. The Indian government wants access in a readable format to encrypted BlackBerry e-mail and instant messaging services, on grounds that it could be used by militants. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had earlier asked mobile operators to ensure a monitoring system for BlackBerry services by August 31 or stop offering certain services like enterprise email due to heavy encryption. There are an estimated one million BlackBerry subscribers in the country. Meanwhile, Home Secretary G.K. Pillai is expected to convene a meeting next week to review the progress made in discussions with phone operators and RIM.