14 DAY TRIAL // For those unfamiliar, Pakistan is one of the most important BlackBerry markets, but beginning today that market will cease to exist for the Canadian company.
BlackBerry's Chief Operating System, Marty Beard, has just announced that his company will exit the Pakistani market because it can no longer protect its customers' privacy.
It appears that back in July, the Pakistani Telecommunications Authority notified all mobile phone carriers in the country that BlackBerry's BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Service) will no longer be allowed to operate in the country effective December “for security reasons.”
If you're wondering what those “security reasons” are, it's pretty simple. The Pakistani Government wants to monitor all the BES traffic in the country, including every BES email and BES BBM message.
Because of its policy to protect the privacy of its users, BlackBerry would not comply with such directive. According to Beard, Pakistan was basically demanding “unfettered access” to all the company's BES customers' information, not just those under investigations for their criminal activity.
No more BlackBerry smartphones in the country
BlackBerry issued a statement back in July when the first rumors of Pakistani government's decision to force the Canadian company to exit its market, in which reiterates its willingness to cooperate with lawful government investigative requests of criminal activity.
However, BlackBerry said at that time that it would never allow wholesale access to its BES servers no matter the consequences.
But BlackBerry's exit from the Pakistani market is not limited to its BES services, as the company has decided not to sell any smartphones in the country as well.
“Although the Pakistani government’s directive was aimed only at our BES servers, we have decided to exit the market altogether, because Pakistan’s demand for open access to monitor a significant swath of our customers’ communications within its borders left us no choice but to exit the country entirely,” explains Marty Beard in a blog post.