14 DAY TRIAL // After long conflicts and debates with a few Asian countries, it seems that RIM lost the first fight, as its services will not be available in UAE anymore. According to United Arab Emirates Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, the ban is due to start October 11th, as the result of the "failure of ongoing attempts, dating back to 2007, to bring BlackBerry services in the U.A.E. in line with U.A.E. telecommunications regulations."
Even though the Canadian company is not running a major business in UAE with only 500,000 clients, there's a high chance that other countries that have skirmished the company in the past, to take similar actions against it. India, Kuweit, Saudi Arabia, and China are still waiting to get access to the data transmitted by BlackBerry smartphones, but RIM has repeatedly refused to turn over secure data from its servers.
"BlackBerry data is immediately exported offshore, where it's managed by a foreign, commercial organization. BlackBerry data services are currently the only data services operating in the U.A.E. where this is the case," UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority said. "Today's decision is based on the fact that, in their current form, certain BlackBerry services allow users to act without any legal accountability, causing judicial, social and national-security concerns."
Further, the decision is also a direct consequence of the fact that RIM ignored the contract with telecommunication provider Emirates Telecommunications Corp. (owned by the UAE government), which required the set up of a proxy server in the country. RIM's decision was based mostly by the fact that because of jurisdictional issues, UAE courts will not be able to compel it to give access to its clients' secure data from a server which is placed outside the U.A.E.
While RIM refused to make any comments on the UAE government's decision, it seems that other countries will soon follow. Already, a Saudi Arabian official said last week that the telecom regulator agency in the country ordered telecommunications companies to block BlackBerry IM services later this month.