Russian conglomerate Sistema's Indian arm Sistema Shyam Teleservices (SSTL) has broken ranks with other telecom companies and decided to wind up its BlackBerry services in India. BlackBerry, which till a few years ago was considered a privileged service for Indian telecom companies, has been hit by the security controversy and fierce competition from increasingly popular Android-based smart-phones, which have flooded the market.
There are seven private telecom companies besides public sector giants BSNL and MTNL that provide BlackBerry services. While the private companies have provided access to lawful interception of BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) Services, BSNL is still negotiating with its US-based vendor Verint Systems over the quoted price of more than Rs 20 crore for setting up 21 interception machines.
A top BSNL official told Mail Today that the company will not pay such a huge sum. The official pointed out that there has been no significant increase in the number of BlackBerry users on its network and spending too much on such services cannot be justified. BSNL has over 35,000 BlackBerry users.
A Sitema official downplayed the issue saying if the company continues to offer Blackberry services, it would be forced to pay a licence fee and fixed charges for BlackBerry services. "It is purely a cost-cutting exer-cise and there is no security issue involved," he claimed.
Another BSNL official said that Canadian company's market share is already on the decline as smartphones have now taken over BlackBerry. But we have to meet the security requirements," he said.
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