When Saudi Arabia threatened to shut down the BlackBerry corporate messenger service in the country, Egyptians feared they may be next, Nader Habib reports Blackberry is in these days in Egypt. Traditionally avid mobile users, many Egyptians were recently enticed by heavy advertising campaign to own a blackberry and to subscribe to its instant message service. These very users held their breath last week when the Saudi telecom regulator, The Communications and Information Technology Commission, CITC, gave Research in Motion, RIM, 48 hours to make its encrypted data available to the local authorities. They feared they may be next. Saudi regulators claim that some of the BlackBerry applications breached their licensing terms in ways that compromise national security. A year or so ago, the CITC informed the kingdom's three service providers (Saudi Telecom, Mobily, and Zain) that they need to make encrypted information accessible to the government. RIM has agreed to cooperate with the Saudi authorities in overriding encryption as needed. Young Saudis, who are the main users of BlackBerry, are in two minds about the dispute. Some admit that encryption can pose a security risk. Others argue that the government's control of the service constitutes a breach of privacy. Those addicted to BlackBerry Messenger would be the worst hit, for the messaging application -- one of the many services the BlackBerry offers, has changed the scene of social interaction. Those who use the BlackBerry for e-mail have less to worry about, as this particular application can be provided by other sets and service providers. Saudi communication experts called on the government to provide an alternative to BlackBerry. The chief of the communications sector of the General Investment Authority, Ahmed Yamani, said that "the impact of the decision to discontinue some BlackBerry features in Saudi Arabia is negligible, for the service that would be banned can be substituted with other solutions until the problem is sorted out." In Egypt, officials reassured the public. Amr Badawi, chief of Egypt's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) said that his organisation has no plans to ban BlackBerry from the Egyptian market. Speaking at Egypt's Smart Village, Badawi said that all BlackBerry sets in the Egyptian market meet the country's standards, adding that service operators cannot add applications without first consulting with the TRA. Any breach of the regulations, he pointed out, would be met with stiff penalties. Meanwhile, Egypt intends to stop providing telephone service to lines whose owners are unidentified. A new communications system that would be launched within days would discontinue service to telephone lines whose owners have failed to identify themselves, Badawi said. Marian Fouad, a computer engineer and owner of a BlackBerry, said that Egypt was unlikely to discontinue Blackberry services. "If this happens, it would mean that we're moving backwards, not forward. Every invention in the world has good sides and bad sides. And we cannot block an invention just because some people abuse it." Recalling how poor telephone service used to be in Egypt, Fouad said that she was thrilled to own a BlackBerry, a set which she uses to phone up her fiancé in the US at low cost. "When I used the BlackBerry for the first time, I was blown away. Its abilities are much bigger than its size. It is like a personal computer, for it allows you to browse your e-mail and send instant messages to friends around the world. And you can also use it to pinpoint your location and your destination with GPRS. In addition, it has a camera and a voice recorder, so a journalist doesn't need to carry around a lot of equipment," Fouad added. In April, Bahrain warned BlackBerry users against exchanging local news through text messages. With BlackBerry currently controlling nearly 20 per cent of the smart phones market, right after Nokia and ahead of Apple, a ban on its service in Gulf countries could be devastating. On Sunday, the UAE warned that it may take action against RIM. BlackBerry services were currently operating "outside the scope of the judiciary authority and national laws [which] opens the way for violations that may cause repercussions on the social and legal levels and on the level of state security," a statement by the UAE main regulating body pointed out. Has freedom of communications gone too far? According to regulators in this region, the answer seems to be yes. But the young do not seem to be concerned. For many of them, the convenience of fast messaging outweighs the concerns of security officials.
