India extends BlackBerry access deadline

India has given BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) an extended deadline of January 31 to provide its intelligence agencies a way of accessing all its services, a report said Tuesday.

Citing a home ministry note, the Economic Times newspaper said the government had decided to extend the original October 31 deadline by 90 days.

It will be RIM's third reprieve as it seeks to end a three-year standoff with the Indian security agencies which have threatened to shut down services offered on its handsets unless they are given access to secure, encrypted data.

BlackBerry has reportedly granted manual access to its messenger service with a pledge of real-time, automated access by the start of next year. India also wants access to encrypted corporate e-mails.

RIM’s representatives have met home and telecom ministry officials a number of times to allay concerns that unmonitored BlackBerry services could potentially be used by terrorists.

Last week, the United Arab Emirates withdrew a threatened ban on Blackberry services, after ascertaining they had been brought into compliance with the Gulf state's regulatory framework.

(c) 2010 AFP