BlackBerry Will Continue to Operate in Pakistan

Last month, we heard that BlackBerry was planning to leave Pakistan due to privacy concerns. BlackBerry refused to accept the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority’s plea for “unfettered access” to use users’ information that included emails and BBM conversations.

The request made by the PTA would directly infringe on users’ privacy. And BlackBerry is not one to jeopardise the privacy of its customers. Earlier in July, the PTA sent out notifications to the country’s mobile phone operators stating that BlackBerry’s BES servers won’t be allowed to operate in the country starting December due to “security reasons”. It was then that the Canadian phone company decided to leave Pakistan for good.

However, after some “productive discussions”, the government is willing to let go of its order.This means that BlackBerry is staying put in Pakistan and will not be risking its privacy. Marty Beard, chief operating officer of BlackBerry, wrote on the company’s blog: “We are grateful to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority and the Pakistani government for accepting BlackBerry’s position that we cannot provide the content of our customers’ BES traffic, nor will we provide access to our BES servers.”