FG MAY JAM BLACKBERRY LINES OVER SECURITY CONCERNS
BLACKBERRY users across the
country may soon experience acute problems with their devices, if plans by the
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) receive legislative approval.
This follows concerns that Blackberry devices are not open to direct interception and monitoring.
A draft of a bill to that effect, obtained by the Nigerian Compass at the weekend, is entitled: “Draft Lawful Interception of Communications Regulations”. It is being put together by the NCC, pursuant to the provisions of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003.
Part V of the draft, which dwells on Interception Capability, empowers the NCC to refuse license to any communication service, which does not have the capacity to be monitored and intercepted.
Section 12 of the said Part V reads: ”Notwithstanding any
other law in force, no Licensee shall provide any Communications services which
does not have the capacity to be monitored and intercepted”.This follows concerns that Blackberry devices are not open to direct interception and monitoring.
A draft of a bill to that effect, obtained by the Nigerian Compass at the weekend, is entitled: “Draft Lawful Interception of Communications Regulations”. It is being put together by the NCC, pursuant to the provisions of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003.
Part V of the draft, which dwells on Interception Capability, empowers the NCC to refuse license to any communication service, which does not have the capacity to be monitored and intercepted.
In effect, the services of Research In Motion, (RIM), makers of the Blackberry brand of mobile phones which fall into that category will be affected. The server of RIM is domiciled in Canada, thereby making it impossible for the services of Blackberry to be monitored and intercepted.
Last year, the Indian government had a similar issue with where RIM’s servers are located and demanded access to its BBM data. The company had to make certain proposals which seemed to have appeased the government. It thus avoided getting their services banned. RIM has since placed 5,000 BES servers in Mumbai.
A similar scenario resulted in the temporary ban of Blackberry in Saudi Arabia when the government of the oil rich nation blamed operators and RIM for the encryption of customers messages.
The new NCC draft on lawful monitoring and interception of communications services is about going the same direction as stakeholders are set to examine and contribute to the draft.
An industry stakeholder told the Nigerian Compass that although the servers of Blackberry are not located in the country, they still could be monitored through the service channels that provide BB service to the citizens such mobile telephone operators, internet service providers and hotspot service providers.
But whether the service channels will need to seek clearance from BB before granting permission for such monitoring and interception is what stakeholders feared may put BB under threat in Nigeria.
Part VI, No 13 sub-section 1 of the draft law mandates the Licensee to provide the National Security Adviser and the State Security Service with key, code or access to protected or encrypted communication.
The draft further states in sub-section 2 that where the key or code is in the possession of another person, the Licensee shall be under an obligation to request such person to disclose the key or code to the National Security Adviser and the State Security Service.
The draft in clear terms mandates the licensee to provide the necessary facilities and devices to enable the monitoring of communications under the regulations.
It also mandates the licensee to bear the investment, technical, maintenance and operating cost in enabling the licensee to give effect to the provisions of these regulations.
For operators and service providers that do not comply, the regulations have stiff penalty, which can make Blackberry services to be terminated soon.
The NCC has the mandate of the draft law to go beyond imposing a fine of N5 million of continuous offending by licensee or revocation of license.
Research In Motion Limited, which took the name of its best-known product, now known simply as BlackBerry, as part of a comeback plan that includes unveiling a redesigned line of smartphones has been in series of crisis around the world that made sales to drop.
One of such is the life span of its battery that the company was unable to address, even with its Blackberry.
At the March launch in the country, which had in attendance BlackBerry’s senior regional management team: Robert Bose, Regional Managing Director for Middle East and Africa, Waldi Wepener, Managing Director, East, Central and West Africa, and Roger Enright, Senior Vice President for Product Management, answers could not be provided to journalist questions on the Blackberry battery problem.
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