AN INDIAN OFFICIAL said Wednesday that Blackberry PDAs don't pose a threat to the country's national security, resolving concerns previously raised by its security agencies.

"People are buying Blackberry. There is no threat from Blackberry services," India's telecommunications secretary Siddhartha Behura stated. "They do not have to seek our permission to start any service." His remarks were made at a telecom industry meeting, according to Press Trust of India.

In March, India had threatened to ban the Blackberry email and personal organiser devices built by Canadian firm Research in Motion (RIM) and forbid Indian telecom companies from offering the service unless security agencies' capabilities to intercept the communications could be confirmed.

RIM representatives shortly thereafter held talks with officials in charge of India's national security agencies to assuage their concerns.

Emails sent from and delivered to Blackberry devices can be encrypted with Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) algorithms, but it's thought that very few people actually use that capability because RIM charges extra for the feature and it requires the users to type in their private passphrases to access cryptographic functions.

India is the world's fastest growing mobile communications market, according to industry estimates. There are reportedly about 400,000 Blackberry PDA users in India at present. µ

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AFP