JEDDAH: Saudi’s telecoms regulator has said it postponed a ban on BlackBerry until Monday so that suggested solutions to the kingdom’s security concerns offered by the Canadian maker can be tested.
The Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) said the 48 hours grace period, ending Monday evening, was given "to test the suggested solutions," according to a statement carried by SPA state news agency late Saturday.
The decision was also based on the "ongoing efforts by the providers of mobile services to meet the requirements of the commission’s regulations."
"A decision to stop or maintain the service will be taken according to the results" of the tests, it said.
A deal between BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) and Saudi Arabia was "virtually" sealed, an official at one of the three mobile services providers said Saturday.
The Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television said that RIM has agreed in principle to grant access to Saudi authorities to decipher its messenger exchanges between users.
A special server for the messenger services is to be set up in the highly security-conscious Gulf state, birthplace of Al-Qaeda and its leader Osama bin Laden, according to Al-Arabiya.
The Saudi telecommunications authority announced a few days ago that it had ordered mobile providers to block key BlackBerry services as of August 6 or face a $1.3-million- fine.
The regulator had said the suspension was because "the way BlackBerry services are provided currently does not meet the regulatory criteria of the commission and the licensing conditions."
BlackBerry’s encrypted emails and data are stored on servers in Canada, where RIM is based, meaning that third parties such as intelligence agencies cannot monitor the secure communications.
BlackBerry subscribers number around 700,000 in Saudi Arabia, a conservative kingdom which enforces a rigid Islamic social code and strictly censored Internet service.
Some BlackBerry users reported a brief shutdown of services on Friday.
It came five days after the United Arab Emirates, which has some 500,000 BlackBerry users, announced it would cut off BlackBerry messenger, email and web browsing services on October 11 because of security fears.
The confusion over the fate of BlackBerry services has infuriated some users who are still not sure if their handheld devices will continue to provide the exceptional instant messaging services or turn into ordinary phones.
"Is this a game for kids? You either cut off the service or leave it on," said a reader commenting on Al-Riyadh daily’s website, addressing the CITC.
"I feel that you do not know what you are doing," the commentator added.
Others joked about the uncertainty, with one mocking the telecoms regulator’s incompetence.
"Ha-ha, you didn’t know how to switch off the service," the blogger wrote.
Meanwhile, neighboring Bahrain and Oman said they oppose a ban on BlackBerry, a favorite tool of business travellers, while Lebanon, a frontline state with Israel, has yet to reach a decision despite its security concerns.
Outside the Arab world, India has said it is mulling a ban, and Indonesia is not ruling out the option, although on Thursday it denied that the world’s largest Muslim country was considering a suspension of BlackBerry services.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday joined the debate, saying her country would soon hold talks with the UAE and other countries about the issue.
"We are taking time to consult and analyze the full range of interests and issues at stake because we know that there is a legitimate security concern," Clinton said, while recognizing a "legitimate right of free use and access."
