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Saudi watchdog backtracks on BlackBerry ban
AFP - Wednesday, August 11
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Saudi watchdog backtracks on BlackBerry ban
RIYADH (AFP) - – Saudi Arabia on Tuesday postponed indefinitely a BlackBerry messenger ban after a deadline passed for finding a solution allowing authorities to monitor the service on the popular smartphone.
The telecoms watchdog in the ultra-conservative Muslim country announced the BlackBerry service would remain online, as it reported progress in efforts to find a solution in a statement carried by the state news agency SPA.
The Communications and Information Technology Commission had ordered mobile operators to block key BlackBerry services from Friday last week or face a 1.3-million-dollar fine, after similar moves by other Arab nations.
After days of talks and testing of possible solutions by the operators, CITC said Tuesday it "decided to allow the continuation of BlackBerry messenger service."
The regulator said it was continuing "to work with service providers to complete the remainder of the regulatory requirements" for BlackBerrys, which are made by Canadian company Research in Motion, or RIM.
The ban reprieve, it added, was due to "positive developments in the completion of part of the regulatory requirements on the part of service providers."
Saudi BlackBerry users welcomed the move, saying the telecommunications authority had made the right call.
CITC "has taken the right decision," said 19-year-old university student Sahar Mohammed.
"I don't know why they've made such a big deal out of this," she said, adding that "they should have reached an agreement without making us go through all that discomfort last week."
The phones are a popular means of communication between men and women in the kingdom, where sexes are strictly segregated.
"I would have died... if the service was stopped even for three days," Alonood Oseilan wrote on the wall of a Facebook group set up by a number of Saudi youths to protest the announced service ban.
Khaled al-Harthi, a 21-year-old university student, said he rushed off to buy a new BlackBerry handset to celebrate the occasion.
"I already have a BlackBerry but as I'm happy the service will continue, I decided to buy another one," he said, adding he "might give it to a friend as a present. What I care about today is the fact that the service will continue."
Mashaal al-Yami, a manager at a private company, said: "They have been wracking people's nerves for days. I'm glad the service will continue as I use it a lot."
CITC said last week its decision to suspend the services had been due to the fact that "the way BlackBerry services are provided currently does not meet the regulatory criteria of the commission and the licensing conditions."
Among the reported solutions is the installation of a local server accessible to Saudi authorities, instead of the data going directly to RIM's Canadian servers.
Local daily Okaz on Monday quoted a technical source at one of the monarchy's three mobile phone companies as saying the "tests on the server and requested programmes... have been successful."
Another telecoms official also said that talks between CITC and RIM have ended in "reaching a solution accepted by all parties," according to Al-Shams daily.
More than 700,000 Saudis subscribe to BlackBerry, with most reportedly purchasing the smartphone for personal use.
But Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, has expressed fears the handheld device could jeopardise its security.
The threat of a Saudi ban came hot on the heels of an announcement by the telecoms authority in the United Arab Emirates that it would ban BlackBerry messenger, email and web browsing from October 11, for similar reasons.
Outside the Arab world, India is mulling a ban and Indonesia is not ruling out the option, although on Thursday it denied the world's largest Muslim nation was considering a suspension of BlackBerry services.
India plans to set a deadline later this week for operators to allow security agencies access to encrypted BlackBerry messages or else face disconnection, the Hindustan Times quoted a home ministry official as saying Tuesday.
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