Legal Research

BlackBerry Deal Reached in KSA

By Omar Ha-Redeye

The potential ban against BlackBerry devices in Saudi Arabia has been averted, for now. The Saudi government is implementing a 48-hour grace period until tomorrow while they test out a deal reached which would allow them to monitor messages for criminal activity,

Officials say the deal involves installing BlackBerry computer servers in the kingdom, which would allow the Saudi government some access to user’s data.

Any agreement has to apply to all three of the mobile operators in the country, including Saudi Telecom, which is state-controlled, Mobily 7020.SE and Zain Saudi Arabia.

If the plan is successful it may help averting bans in the other countries such as U.A.E, India, Indonesia, Lebanon, Kuwait and Egypt who have expressed similar concerns. U.A.E. is expected to ban BlackBerry  e-mail, browsing and messaging in October 2010.

Canadians are keeping a close eye on the agreement because the BlackBerry is made by the Canadian company Research in Motion (RIM), based in Waterloo, Ontario. Saudi Arabia is considered RIM’s largest market in the entire Middle East.

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on August 08, 2010 (boomark / email).