Messenger banning reprieve

11 August 2010 - 02:03 By Reuters
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Blackberry maker Research In Motion yesterday won a reprieve from a threatened ban on its Messenger texting service as Saudi Arabia said progress was being made on dealing with the kingdom's security concerns.

The company's biggest Gulf market, with 700000 users, Saudi Arabia threatened to ban the service on Friday a week ago before giving RIM until next Monday as it worked with companies that are testing servers.

It will "continue working with the service providers to complete the rest of the regulatory requirements," the government said.

Saudi Arabia and some of its neighbours are worried that BlackBerry's encrypted messaging could be used to harm security interests.



If the two sides reach a compromise, analysts expect the regulator to scrap its planned ban on Messenger, though they said installing local servers could disrupt Messenger services for weeks.

BlackBerry, unlike rivals Nokia and Apple, operates its own network through facilities in Canada and the UK.

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