Nokia to set up server by Nov; may put pressure on BlackBerry
Amid security concerns raised by the government over encrypted data travelling through mobiles, handset maker Nokia, which offers push-mail services today said it will set up required infrastructure by November to help the government monitor the contents.
The decision of the Finnish firm may put more pressure on Research In Motion (RIM), which offers BlackBerry services, to give security agencies more access to its encrypted messenger and BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES).
The similar kind of services offered by BlackBerry recently came under the security scanner, as the government failed to intercept and monitor the data travelling through the BlackBerry devices.
"Currently the Nokia Messaging Service is in beta format. We have been working towards installing the requisite infrastructure in the country and will set up servers for our push email service by November 2010," Nokia India Managing Director D Shivakumar said.
Push email uses a mail delivery system with real-time capability to "push" email to clients as soon as it arrives. Nokia Messaging is a push e-mail service, which was launched in 2009. The Nokia Messaging servers aggregate messages from upto ten accounts and pushes them to compliant devices.
BES also works similarly, as it monitors the e-mail servers, and when it sees new e-mail for a BlackBerry user, it retrieves a copy and then pushes it to the BlackBerry device.
The Indian government has been demanding greater access to mobile and online communications on the back of national security concerns. "We are launching the server on November 5 in compliance with all the rules and regulation in the country...It is for hosting mail and ensuring that the government has access (to the data)," Shivakumar told reporters here.
RIM, who are the makers of BlackBerry, are facing a closure of services day after tomorrow, as they do not have a server hosted in India and the data travelling through their mails could not be intercepted.
