Just couple of months back, talks of BlackBerry Ban in Malaysia was hot in the midst of banning by Saudi and Indian government. At first, our very own Minister ruled out such ban in Malaysia but later issued a statement that MCMC is gathering detail information of BlackBerry service in order to see a ban is required here as well.

They were suppose to get back on their conclusion during that “week“. So far there was no mention about BlackBerry Ban and the rest of us moved on as if nothing had happened. We have always wondered what was the outcome of their “info gathering” as they left everybody in Limbo.

Now there’s a new update from Parliament. While replying to an enquiry by Selayang MP, Rais Yatim says that there is no plan to restrict Blackberry usage as they are convinced with its security in terms of data storage and transfer. After having discussions with RIM, he assured that users can continue to use BlackBerry services especially when it offers tremendous benefits to the business community. He also added that RIM expressed readiness to cooperate with our Malaysian government to obtain information and channel for continued use of the service.

BlackBerry users can now breathe a sigh of relief, unless of course the government starts lingering with the idea of banning again.

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After threats by the Indian goverment to suspend BlackBerry services in the country by August 31, news reports have confirmed that RIM, the makers of BlackBerry have agreed to give India access to its BlackBerry messenger service beginning September 1 to address security concerns raised by the Indian governement.

RIM share prices slid US$2.57, or 4.8 percent, to US$50.83 on NASDAQ following the announcement. Its biggest dive this month. The stock has lost 25% this year.

RIM will first give agencies access to messenger services on a manual basis, with information provided for individual phone numbers on request of the government, the Bloomberg report revealed. RIM will provide a more automated solution to tracking BlackBerry smartphone messages by November.

In addition, RIM engineers will meet with technical staff from India’s Department of Telecommunications tomorrow to work on a solution that allows access to corporate emails inside the BlackBerry servers.

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If you’re planning a trip to Dubai in October and plan to keep in touch with your friends and colleagues with BIS and BBM, well you can very well forget about it or consider doing all your mobile stuff on another device that’s not a BlackBerry.

The Emirates’ telecoms regulator have confirmed that travelers to the city-state of Dubai and the important oil industry center of Abu Dhabi will — like the 500,000 local subscribers — have to do without BlackBerry e-mail, messaging and Web services starting October 11, even if their BlackBerrys are supported by carriers from other countries.

This doesn’t bode well for the country’s ambitions to be a business and tourism haven considering that about 100,000 travelers pass through Dubai’s airport every day, making it the busiest in the Middle East. The new restrictions could leave time-pressed business travelers hurrying through, many of them changing planes for other destinations, without access to their e-mail or the Web. That would put BlackBerry services out of reach for business travelers and others passing through the busy Mideast airport hub of Dubai, which handled 40.9 million passengers last year.

The good thing is, unlike the infamous camera phone ban in Saudi Arabia circa the mid noughties, travellers into Dubai and Abu Dhabi are still allowed to carry their BlackBerrys into the country and they can still make phone calls with the devices.

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There’s no denying that RIM is the world leader when it comes to business class smartphones. The BlackBerry is by default, the device of choice for budding junior execs and high powered CEO alike. What makes the BlackBerry such a powerful tool for business moguls besides it’s instant messaging and emailing capabilities is the fact that BlackBerry offers uncompromising encryption and security for its users. It is by far the most secure mobile emailing and messaging solution out there, way ahead of Google, iPhone and even Microsoft

But with Saudi Arabia’s recent lifting of its ban on the BlackBerry service based on concessions made by RIM, speculation is surfacing that BlackBerry has provided unprecedented access to certain RIM resources, giving it the power to eavesdrop on any Saudi Blackberry user, revealed an anonymous source that is close to BlackBerry.

If this is true then it is very conceivable that other countries that have or are threatening to ban the BlackBerry service might request for similar privileges in exchange for continued use of BlackBerry services.

How does this bode for RIM’s ironclad security and privacy credibility, well it’ll definitely be tarnished but to what extent is yet to be determined; but considering the notion that quite a fair number of BlackBerry users are not really bothered about the eaves dropping unless they really have something to hide, we’re thinking its going to make little to no impact at all.

The interesting thing we’re taking from this is that, as the Malaysian government is now evaluating if there is a need to ban BlackBerry here, we’re wondering if it is even necessary now that governments can request for access to data on BlackBerry servers — probably not.

But on the other hand, RIM is not just going to bend over and give access to its BlackBerry servers without a fight. After all, the brand’s reputation and USP is at stake here.

So will Malaysia call for a ban on BlackBerry service in Malaysia? We’re saying no but, in Malaysia, anything can happen.

Read about the rest of the BlackBerry ban in Malaysia right here on SoyaCincau.com:
To ban or not to ban: Ministry decides on BlackBerry this week
No Blackberry ban in Malaysia

[source]

In what can be considered as a perplexing move, Rais Yatim who earlier ruled out the banning of BlackBerry services in this country yesterday made a statement saying that the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission is currently gathering detailed information about the BlackBerry service in the wake of bans of the service in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Rais said that the report from MCMC is expected to be completed sometime this week and that his ministry will be evaluating the information to see if a ban in Malaysia is required.

Wonder if a BlackBerry ban is a big enough issue to be discussed in Parliament? It’s definitely heaps better than talking in Parliament about this topic.

Looks like the 1.5 million BlackBerry users in this country are pretty nervous right now. Keep it locked on to SoyaCincau.com for the latest development on this.

[source]

(Update 0022hrs 11082010) Rais Yatim says MCMC gathering information on BlackBerry service for his ministry to evaluate and decide if a ban is necessary. More here.

Information, Communication and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Rais Yatim has ruled out any move to ban on Blackberry in Malaysia which is currently used by an estimated 1.5 million users.

According to Malaysian Mobile Content Pro­viders Association’s president, there would be much opposition if they ban it here especially when the government themselves rely on Blackberry services including top government agencies and the police.

UAE and Saudi Arabia government had earlier announced the ban on Blackberry service as user communication data is encrypted with no possible monitoring by its government. The Indonesian government has also demand for local monitoring which could possibly lead to a similar ban if RIM does not comply.

With this announcement, blackberry users and our local telcos can now breathe a sigh of relief. Blackberry Torch 9800 anyone?

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