Blackberry wins UAE reprieve, ban halted

Dubai, Oct 8: Despite ban on BlackBerry smart phones in many countries, the United Arab Emirates backed off a threat to cut key services on the lucrative phones just days before the ban was set to take effect.

The Gulf state's Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA) said on Friday, Oct 8 carried by state news agency WAM that "all BlackBerry services ... will continue to operate as normal" beyond the pending Oct 11 cutoff date.

The decision came after the TRA found out that more than half million nationals were in used of BlackBerry in the Middle East business hub.

Emirati authorities had threatened to shut off BlackBerry messaging, e-mail and Web browsing services partly because of security concerns.

OneIndia News