UAE: United Arab Emirate's plan to suspend BlackBerry services in October sparks concern among users in the Gulf Arab state

Record ID: 560010

  • Title: UAE: United Arab Emirate's plan to suspend BlackBerry services in October sparks concern among users in the Gulf Arab state
  • Date: 3rd August 2010
  • Summary: DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (AUGUST 2, 2010) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF COMMUNICATION COMPANY "DU" SALES CENTRE IN DUBAI SIGN READING "DU" CUSTOMER TALKING TO SALESWOMAN PEOPLE WALKING NEAR BLACKBERRY ADVERTISING SIGN CLOSE OF BLACKBERRY ADVERTISING SIGN VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WALKING AT SHOPPING CENTRE USING BLACKBERRY PHONES (SOUNDBITE) (English) DUBAI RESIDENT, SAYING: "BlackBerry for business and everything is very good and for them to stop all of this is not good thing at all" VARIOUS OF BLACKBERRY PHONES DISPLAYED AT SHOP SHOP OWNER AT MOBILE SHOP (SOUNDBITE) (English) RUSSIAN EMPLOYEE, GHASSAN SAYING: "Actually for me it is very bad because every day I use the BlackBerry messenger to chat with my family to the country not only family but also with my friends in UAE" GHASSAN USING HIS BLACKBERRY DEVICE UAE CITIZEN BUYING BLACKBERRY SMARTPHONE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) UAE CITIZEN SAYING: "It's wrong to stop these services, because communication nowadays depends on the messenger and the BlackBerry services." VARIOUS OF PEOPLE USING BLACKBERRY MOBILE PHONES VARIOUS OF DUBAI STREET/ BUILDING
  • Embargoed: 18th August 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Communications
  • Reuters ID: LVADTFUUZ4QA12G2XTOD28U4IYW8
  • Story Text: The United Arab Emirate's plan to suspend BlackBerry services in October 2010 has sparked concern among users in the Gulf Arab state over the impact it might have on free speech and on companies which rely on the services.
    BlackBerry's Messenger application has spread rapidly in the region but because the data is encrypted and sent to offshore servers, it cannot be monitored locally, making regulators worry it might pose a threat to national security.
    "BlackBerry for business and everything is very good and for them to stop all of this is not good thing at all," said one resident who is using Blackberry services.
    BlackBerry has about half a million users in the UAE, most of them business executives and expatriates including those in the Gulf's financial hub, Dubai.
    But the smartphone has also taken hold among individual local users, primarily because of the Messenger application.
    "Actually for me it is very bad because every day I use the BlackBerry messenger to chat with my family in the country, not only family but also with my friends in UAE," said a Russian employee in Dubai.
    The Gulf Arab state is slowly emerging from an economic slowdown brought on by the global financial crisis and a crash of Dubai's property market, which led to billions of dollars in project cancellations and thousands of job cuts.
    UAE officials say they object to BlackBerry encrypted data being exported offshore, noting this is not a problem with smartphones from Nokia or Apple's iPhone.
    Similar security worries have been raised in India. The country's Internal Security Chief U.K. Bansal told reporters last week that BlackBerry maker Research in Motion had pledged to address those concerns soon.
    The UAE plans to halt use of BlackBerry Messenger, email and web browser services on October 11.
    Industry sources told Reuters that Saudi Arabian telecom firms had also been instructed to freeze the Messenger function effective this month.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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