BlackBerry may get extension

Centre is likely to extend the October-end deadline for Research in Motion, the Canadian maker of BlackBerry phones, to give security agencies access to corporate emails.

Centre is likely to extend the October-end deadline for Research in Motion, the Canadian maker of BlackBerry phones, to give security agencies access to corporate emails.

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The technical talks with RIM are on the right track, a government source said, pointing that it will, however, take longer than the five weeks to the deadline to come up with a solution.

Home ministry had asked telecom experts to examine the feasibility of setting up servers in India to ensure compliance with interception needs of security establishment and asked them to sit with BlackBerry representatives to find a way out.

After the first round of talks, sources said there was acknowledgement that the BlackBerry Enterprise Server system was a little more complicated than previously evaluated from the point of interception of emails.

Sources insisted complications were not impossible to work around but it would take longer than the October 30 deadline.

Given that the security establishment was satisfied with the access provided to BlackBerry services, sources said there may not be any disruption in BlackBerry to nudge RIM to act on India’s security concerns.