BlackBerry issue to be sorted in a week or two

New Delhi, Apr 25 (UNI) Communications and Information Technology Minister A Raja today said the security issue on BlackBerry services will be sorted out within a week or two.

''We will sort the security issue on BlackBerry services with in a week or two,'' Mr Raja told reporters here.

The government had earlier asked the telecom companies not to provide certain BlackBerry services until monitoring systems are in place.

It had also written to Research In Motion asking it to install servers in India.

The BlackBerry issue surfaced when Tata Teleservices was denied permission to start the services on grounds that it does not allow for interception of data by the government.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) had yesterday said it planned to provide BlackBerry services on its network but will wait for the government to sort out the security issues.

Currently, Reliance, Airtel and Vodafone offer BlackBerry services.

Worldwide, RIM has partnerships with 150 carriers in more than 60 countries where BlackBerry services are available on more than one network. In the Asia-Pacific region, it has partnered with 21 carriers in 11 countries.

India has about 35,000-40,000 users of BlackBerry and the number is expected to go up to more than five lakh.

BlackBerry enables mobile customers to access a premium range of applications, including e-mail, attachments, spreadsheets and organisers, with a single device.

BlackBerry, which was earlier synonymous with corporate executives, has now expanded to the mainstream consumer segment with its Pearl model. The smartphone supports MP3 player, multimedia, video and digital camera, besides e-mails.

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