A Saudi telecom company said on Monday that the kingdom's regulatory authority ordered it to suspend key BlackBerry services, after a similar move in the United Arab Emirates.
"We have received a memorandum from the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) to suspend some BlackBerry services in August," an official at one of the three Saudi telecom companies told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity and asking that his company not be identified. CITC "has ordered local operators to freeze the messenger function for BlackBerry users this month," the Saudi Gazette said.
Local service providers have known for five months that the messaging service would be banned, the daily added, citing officials. The three providers - Saudi Telecom Company (STC), Mobily and Zain - made it clear that the ban does not apply to e-mail service, the daily said. On Sunday, one company executive had told AFP an order was "expected" from CITC to suspend BlackBerry's popular messenger service in Saudi Arabia.
However, the services of BlackBerry in the ultra-conservative monarchy were still functioning normally on Monday, several users told AFP. Companies have asked BlackBerry's makers - Research in Motion Ltd (RIM) - to modify the messaging service to meet "official, private, social and educational requirements," the daily said.
"RIM has informed the Saudi companies that it is modifying the service to meet requests made by officials in countries including the (Saudi) kingdom and France," it added. CITC officials were not immediately available on Monday for comment. The BlackBerry handset, which uses sophisticated encryption technology that authorities are unable to intercept and decipher.
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