BlackBerry Messaging & E-Mail Banned In Pakistan

It looks like the banhammer is being wielded again, and this time around it is Pakistan who is the “culprit”. Apparently, Pakistan has banned both BlackBerry messaging and e-mail, citing “security reasons” as the catalyst for this government move, and this can only mean that the ruling powers are expanding the monitoring of communications within the country itself.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has already issued a directive to mobile phone network operators in order to kill off any access to BlackBerry Enterprise Services for all of their mobile customers by the time November 30 rolls around.

This does not come across as surprising, especially when one takes into consideration Privacy International’s report that warned how Pakistan’s intelligence agencies have begun to tighten the noose where electronic surveillance efforts are concerned. Certain reasons used to justify this move is the current fight with the Pakistani Taliban as well as other insurgents.

It seems that BlackBerry Enterprise Services is just too secure for Pakistan for its own good, since both messaging and e-mail via BlackBerry’s services happen to be encrypted, with all of the data being stored outside of the country, too. Well, not being able to use BlackBerry’s e-mail and messaging services would be more or less killing off the main selling point of the device, and this is a route that India has mulled over in the past.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: ban, BlackBerry