Indonesia Threatens to Ban BlackBerry Services
Indonesia is threatening to block RIM services if its demands are not met.
Indonesia is threatening to ban BIS (Blackberry Internet Service) and Blackberry Messenger if Blackberry maker Research In Motion does not comply with requests to install a server in Indonesia. Badan Regulasi Telekomunikasi Indonesia (BRTI), Indonesia's telecommunications regulator, is apparently upset that RIM chose to set up this infrastructure in Singapore, despite Singapore having fewer Blackberry users than Indonesia.
The Jakarta Globe reports that without a data center in Indonesia, the government will be unable to eavesdrop on users. However, BRTI says it is all down to users' safety. Commissioner Heru Sutadi told PCWorld via email that they want a local server to handle local traffic because BRTI cannot ensure the safety of consumers' data when it is being routed via Canadian servers.
Earlier this year, RIM agreed to censor pornographic content for users in Indonesia after pressure from the country’s government. The company was also given several other areas to work on as part of its agreement. PCWorld reports that the Canadian smartphone manufacturer also agreed to set up a network of over 50 BlackBerry Expert Centers throughout the country, work with law enforcement agencies in Indonesia for the provision of lawful access as stipulated by national law, and place an aggregator closer to Indonesia, which would mean lower costs for local operators lowers and higher speeds for BlackBerry services.
Research In Motion said on Saturday that it was surprised to hear the government was considering something so drastic.
"We were surprised by the government comments we saw in the media," the company is citing by the Globe as saying. "The Dec. 8 meeting was very positive. We couldn't imagine that the government would be so hurtful as to shut down our service [...] We hope that we can work our way through this and everyone can get what they want."
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WTF is up with countries demanding RIM do X or they will ban their service? Seriously do these countries honestly believe it would hurt RIM if they shut off access to BB services? I'm surprised RIM doesn't give them a big FU and just go on about it's business why it should cow tow to any countries whiny regulators is beyond me especially these countries where realistically people are probably a lot more concerned with where there next meal is coming from rather than if their BB works.
Indonesia can have """demands"""?
Dear Indonesia,
F- You
Sincerely,
RIM
Regardless of where RIM is based they still have to follow the regulations and laws of the countries they offer services in. What major corporations and government users like about the secured servers and emails are what the governments in oppressive countries dislike (mainly limiting access to free information and not being able to monitor their citizens).
Sucks that certain countries still feel the need to spy on their people and limit what they are "allowed" to see and say.
how bout a RIM job if the demands are meet?
RIM should just send some lobbyist along with huge stack of cash and see their problems vanish faster than their devices can boot.
this news is old this happen in january 2011, anyway government monitoring communication for security reason such as terorist attack and indonesia is highly succesfull in capturing those terorist, and other reason is RIM as communication service provider have its server and service in overseas which is unthouched by tax and regulation, its like other people make a shop selling thing in your own house and you cant do anyting about it
They were probably upset when their RIM meeting's got canceled due to two execs being drunken a-holes on their flight to Indonesia.
Glad I don't live in Indonesia
Stay strong RIM, don't let them eavesdrop.
Seriously guy it's not about spying, believe me i know i live in jakarta, it's all down to money.My government not that advance yet to break RIM encryption. either they(my government) want:
1.no more money go to singapore(or outside the country) so they can keep the money for them self.
2.RIM doesn't pay bribe enough.
3.another reason(involving money of course).
note: sorry for my bad english
There is a reason why the American never give ransom because it never stop after that. It is what is happening to RIM now it's a bit like how ransom work I would say.
They must use the majority of their workforce to deal with just that since everything is encrypted and the data must be handled by RIM employee, lot's of request that must be done manually.
With all that there most not be a lot of people at RIM to deal with innovation isn't it??
Indonesia is known to have a lot of Islamic extremist and terrorist group....Installing the data center in Singapore, an US Ally, would have made it easier for big brother to spy on these terrorist. Don't laugh, it could well be a major reason....looks like those terrorist will have to use Iphone or Android now....haha.
well indonesia is a very big market for RIM, if not they wont launch their new product in there first. so they gonna try all they can to solve this problem. agree with gusboy there about bribe and money,
Fact is Blackberry is huge in Indonesia. iPhone is dead in Indonesia. Maybe every 8 people out of 10 mobile phone user has blackberry. It's a huge income to government tax if RIM builds datacenter in Indonesia. Maybe the analogy would be like what if Microsoft is located in Africa, not taxable, but installed in 60% of American PCs. And also look at the jobs. Many people can get jobs at RIM datacenters.
RIM should just send some lobbyist along with huge stack of cash and see their problems vanish faster than their devices can boot.
Do it the American way - I like your style!
Fuck Indonesia.
RIM will give in, of course, but the facts still stand.
Governments shouldn't have the rights to eavesdrop on their users. They have other ways of finding out what you're up to and they should be using them instead.
This is just the intelligence service being lazy, and screwing over the 99% of trustworthy citizens that live in the country. Just like the porn-blocker.
Unfortunately i live in indonesia. crap
Seriously guy it's not about spying, believe me i know i live in jakarta, it's all down to money.My government not that advance yet to break RIM encryption. either they(my government) want:1.no more money go to singapore(or outside the country) so they can keep the money for them self.2.RIM doesn't pay bribe enough.3.another reason(involving money of course).note: sorry for my bad english
Hey i live in jakarta too. But i still am furious at the govt's tendency to make junk threats like this. It's rim's servers, their right to install it wherever they want
...Sucks that certain countries still feel the need to spy on their people and limit what they are "allowed" to see and say.
Yeah, not that we, the USA, do not do that. You get bleeps over swear words on TV, not even to mention naked bodies ( I am not talking porn).
Yeah, not that we, the USA, do not do that. You get bleeps over swear words on TV, not even to mention naked bodies ( I am not talking porn).
The censorship here is a lot worse, trust me
Indonesia is one of those countries that are fighting against so-called "terrorism". I bet the government was not happy it could not snoop into people's conversations in the name of preventing terrorism.