BlackBerry exits Pakistan to prevent government from accessing servers

BlackBerry Ltd. will shut down its operations in Pakistan as the country's government demands that it would have access to its secure enterprise service servers.

Bloomberg reported that BlackBerry chief operating officer Marty Beard revealed Monday that the Pakistani government wanted to have unfettered access to their data. The purpose is to monitor BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) servers. The telecommunications company does not agree to this demand, which is why it is exiting the country.

"Remaining in Pakistan would have meant forfeiting our commitment to protect our users' privacy. That is a compromise we are not willing to make," according to Mr. Beard in a report by BBC. "While we recognise the need to cooperate with lawful government investigative requests of criminal activity, we have never permitted wholesale access to our servers,"

Mr. Beard said Blackberry regretted leaving Pakistan since it is an important market. However, they could not support "backdoors" access to their customers' information, and that they have not adhered to this kind of regulations anywhere else in the world.

In July, The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority ordered mobile phone operators in the country that BlackBerry's BES servers are no longer allowed to operate to ensure security.

According to a report by Mashable, the deadline for the original directive was supposed to be on November 30, but it was extended to December 30. This delayed BlackBerry's exit to the country. The directive is going to affect some 5,000 companies under the BES in Pakistan.

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Chairman S. Ismail Shah said the authorities are still in negotiations with BlackBerry to sort things out. The talks could extend for another month.

Besides Pakistan, neighboring India has also asked BlackBerry for unfettered access to its BES, with the government demanding the communications company to put its servers within the country. After lengthy negotiations BlackBerry put up their servers in India. According to reports, the company also gave the Indian government access to certain real-time consumer services.