RIM to finally launch Blackberry in Russia
The KGB have either relented or, what’s more likely, been given the relevant access codes so they can decrypt the traffic. If you’re in Russia, sometime early next year, the Blackberry is coming soon…
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Russian mobile carriers MTS and VimpelCom will start selling Research In Motion’s (RIM) BlackBerry from next year, having finally received clearance from the country’s security services. The US company says it has approval from regulators including the KGB successor FSB, to start selling the smartphone in Q1 next year. The permission is valid for one year.
MTS and VimpelCom have tried for several years to sell the BlackBerry in Russia, but FSB required that RIM provides codes it uses to encrypt traffic, says Reuters. As a result, people could use the device in Russia only with foreign SIM cards. Last month, Ukraine was the first of the former Soviet Union members to sell it, through MTS’s network.
That, and the various countries that have approved Blackberry for certain types of sensitive government data (US and UK included) have probably needed some assurances that this ability to decrypt relates only to Russian-owned devices and not all traffic…
Posted by Ben Smith on November 28th, 2007 at 1:01 pm.