United Arab Emirates might block Blackberry enterprise services

THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (UAE) might block individuals and small businesses from accessing their accounts on the Blackberry Enterprise Service, causing further headaches for mobile phone firm Research In Motion (RIM).

According to the Emirates newspaper The National, which cited a ruling by the UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, Blackberry Enterprise Services will only be accessible by businessses with 20 or more subscriptions from 1 May. This will effectively close the doors to everyone else, preventing them from accessing secure corporate email and other services.

However, the regulator said that all Blackberry services will continue as normal without disruption to any customer and that it will clear up any confusion caused by the newspaper's report. It did not deny that there are plans to introduce such blocking in the future.

RIM said that it had been assured by the regulator that any new rules regarding enterprise services would be "industry-wide" and not targeted at RIM alone, according to Reuters.

The United Arab Emirates previously threatened to shut down Blackberry services when RIM failed to give it access to its secure network. A resolution was eventually agreed in October of last year, the details of which have been kept secret, but it appears that limitations on enterprise accounts might have been part of the deal.

RIM has faced similar difficulties in India, where authorities want access to its network, citing security concerns. Multiple failed deadlines have increased tensions and resulted in Indian government threats to close down the company's Blackberry services in the country.

Apparently individuals and small businesses in the United Arab Emirates will still be able to use the Blackberry Internet Service and encrypted messaging, if you believe the UAE government and not the local newspaper. µ