INDIA YESTERDAY began issuing letters to its telecoms operators ordering them to make BlackBerry corporate e-mail and messenger services accessible to interception by security agencies or risk suspension of their licences.

The move marks the first step by the government towards implementing an ultimatum from the ministry of home affairs on Thursday, warning that India would block the services by the end of this month unless they were opened for monitoring.

“The issue is that the service providers have legal obligations to the government under their licences,” said an industry source.

The legal obligations of Research In Motion (RIM), the Canadian company that makes the devices, were to the service providers, he said. The order poses a dilemma for India’s 15 mobile operators, including industry leader Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar, the number three, as the technology for BlackBerry services is controlled by RIM.

The move also raises the temperature for RIM, which is locked in tense negotiations with the government over its encrypted enterprise e-mail service and messenger function amid concerns these might be misused by terrorists.

Spurred on by similar moves against RIM by the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, India is keen to tighten security ahead of the Commonwealth Games in October, and to curb terrorist attacks originating from Pakistan.

India is the fastest growing mobile phone market, with about 600 million users. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010)