RIM has developed a BlackBerry monitoring solution for the Indian government it says fulfills the nation's surveillance requirements – but one which still can't decrypt corporate emails.
The company said it had completed development of an access system for its Messenger and public email services that will allow carriers to meet legal obligations on lawful interception.
RIM, which had been under pressure to enable state surveillance of its services by January 31, said in a statement sent to the media that it was pleased to have completed the solution before this mutually-agreed deadline.
But the company said the solution does not apply to its highly-encrypted corporate email service, reiterating that it is unable to provide access to these messages as it does not retain a copy of customers' decryption keys.
It said setting up an email server in India, the suggested solution to the impasse, would not work because the security architecture on its BlackBerry Enterprise Server is identical worldwide.
In an update to customers, RIM said it had been assured that all its competitors will be pressed to provide the same lawful access capabilities if they had not done so, Press Trust of Indiareported.
It is currently unclear whether the government, which had originally demanded complete access, will be satisfied with RIM's partial solution. India has already reportedly rejected at least one of RIM's draft monitoring proposals.
RIM last week revealed it could take 18-24 months to deliver an effective enterprise email monitoring solution.
The company, which this week was forced to agree to develop a porn-blocking solution for BlackBerrys in Indonesia, recently revealed it is currently under no pressure from India to filter any internet content.