This isn’t the first time RIM has hit similar roadblocks; India was on the brink of halting BlackBerry service a few years ago on similar grounds, but they’ve moved forward – Vodafone Essar just launched their BlackBerry service plans last month. One of the proposed solutions was to make a Network Operations Center in India, which the government would be able to assert control over if the need arose, but RIM was adamant that they weren’t going to allow any e-mail snooping. I’m curious if RIM held their ground equally when getting further involved in China.
This isn’t a great situation for RIM to be in, especially if Saudi Arabia isn’t far behind. The governments have a point that criminals will default to BlackBerry for their ne’er-do-well scheming, but what’s RIM supposed to do – open the doors to their server rooms whenever a government says so?
[via TRA]