Although most indications point to Indonesia loving BlackBerry, there are a few kinks in the country’s relationship with RIM. The big one is that for over a year, the Indonesian government has wanted a RIM server set up within the country so they could engage in lawful interception and filter porn. Heru Sutadi, from the Indonesian Telecommunication Regulation Body, said:
“Because RIM has not been cooperative, it is possible that we will soon end BIS (BlackBerry Internet Service) and BBM service. BlackBerry therefore, would just be like other cellular phones … With the condition as it is now, we warn that the country’s users to be cautious about using BlackBerry because the data exchanged is not safe or cannot be guaranteed of its safety.”
Of course, there’s also the issue that RIM picked Panang, Malaysia rather than Indonesia for the latest BlackBerry factory which likely contributes to Indonesia’s snarkiness. The problem here is that RIM’s servers in Canada route all BlackBerry data traffic, be it from the browser, e-mail, or BBM. Nobody else does that, and though it adds a degree of security, it means many governments can’t tap the wires. In order to circumvent the issue, places like Saudi Arabia have installed local servers which the government can monitor, and the U.A.E. even banned the use of BlackBerry Enterprise Servers, which were even harder to keep an eye on.
According the their earlier agreement, RIM has until the end of December to get a server up and running in Indonesia, or one of the biggest BlackBerry market in the world may get cut off.
[via Jakarta Post, pic: minifilm/Shutterstock]
