Tag: BES

Government’s Terms are agreed by Blackberry to stay in Pakistan

We’ve confirmed from the well placed sources that the Government will not going to suspend Blackberry Enterprise Service (BES) from December 30.

By resolving the access issue through negotiations and discussions between Blackberry and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) in their formal contact and agreed to the terms. On government legal matters BES has given its consent to assist the government.

Government stake holders are receiving a circulated proposal and final decision will be taken shortly, as BES is unlikely to suspended in the country.

 

Earlier Pakistan Government decided to stop the BES due to security concerns as conversation under BES could not be decoded. Now, the monitoring system could not keep check on BES.

Now Blackberry has allowed access to its communication services in many countries. As its legal requirement and government wants to monitor all BES traffic in the country.

There is a disagreement on monitoring between the Indian government and Blackberry. The issue resolved in 2013, only after BlackBerry agreed to some of the demands made by the Indian government’

At the time of issue of statement, BlackBerry stated:

BlackBerry has delivered a solution that enables India’s wireless carriers to address their lawful access requirements for our consumer messaging services, which include BlackBerry Messenger and BlackBerry Internet Service email. The access to BlackBerry services is also allowed in most of the gulf countries including UAE and Saudi Arabia.

In July PTA demanded access to BES, by which encrypt data such as emails and instant messages possibility is there, or by Nov 30 shut it down. PTA also directed the mobile operators to stop offering BES to its customers after Nov 30’ 2015. PTA also directed the mobile operators through a letter to give 90 days notice before closing the services. In the country around 4,500 to 6,000 customers are using BES according to the officials sources.

As too much pressure from Pakistan government BlackBerry announced its exit from Pakistan on November 30, 2015.

However PTA has given a one month extension to BlackBerry for further discussion on how it will allow Pakistani government access to its communication services. After the extension from Pakistani government, BlackBerry stated on its website:

PTA extended one month to BlackBerry for further discussion about  the access to its communication services to allow Pakistan government access. As extension given by Pakistan government BlackBerry on its website stated like:

Government of Pakistan has notified BlackBerry that it has extended its shutdown order from November 30 to December 30. BlackBerry will delay its exit from the Pakistan market until then.

PTA banned on BlackBerry Enterprise Server Due to security concerns

In the latest move regarding the security concerns, the telecom department PTA has contacted the cellular operators of Pakistan via notification to shut down BlackBerry Enterprise Server ( BES) before December 1, 2015.

The letter received by the operators states that:

Due to serious concerns expressed by security agencies, Mobilink, Ufone and Telenor are requested to give their BES customers 90 days notice for closing their connections by or before Nov 30, 2015.

BES is company’s well-secured service that encrypts data such as emails and BlackBerry Messenger messages sent between a user’s phone and public networks to enhance user’s privacy level.

Usually these services are preferred by the corporate sector and foreign mission for email sharing an access the internet through a dedicated server that is isolated from the whole world, averting them from scrutiny by police and intelligence agencies.

According to an estimation, “there are nearly 4,000 to 7,000 BES customers in Pakistan who will be affected by this decision of PTA however, the authority is of the view that it is providing enough time to the consumers so that they can convert their communication mechanism to other services”.

According to a spokesperson of PTA, Mr. Khurram Mehran,

the decision to block the BES has been taken on the directives of the Interior Ministry due to security reasons as Blackberry Enterprise Server is hard to be tracked or decoded.

It is positive impact for Pakistan that it is listed one of the countries who has banned the BlackBerry Enterprise Servers as the Company had similar problems in past India, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia.

However, this ban will not affect the BlackBerry’s Internet Services (BIS) in the country and hence Blackberry users in the country will be able to continue using internet, voice and SMS services on their phones.

On the other hand, the operators don’t have any affect by this decision of PTA as a large number of public has switched to smartphones from Blackberry phones.

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