Indian authorities have reportedly rejected RIM’s fix to allow surveillance of BlackBerry messaging traffic, opening up the possibility of a permanent ban.
Security agencies have been unable to intercept or monitor emails or messages from BlackBerry users via a technical solution offered by RIM late August, according to internal documents seen by the Economic Times.
RIM will face a ban if it doesn't satisfy the Department of Telecom (DoT) by October 31 – the extended deadline for providing access to encrypted data.
Indian mobile operators, which have been ordered to install a technical solution to enable monitoring of BlackBerry services, have also been left in a quandary.
RIM won a 60-day reprieve on the ban in August, after it submitted a technical solution involving setting up an enterprise server in India.
The company has maintained that it lacks the ability to decode encrypted emails and messages sent by its users, as it does not retain the decryption keys.
India threatened to outlaw the BlackBerry in July because security agencies could not eavesdrop on instant messaging and other traffic.
A ban would affect an estimated one million RIM users in India.