The telecom minister on Tuesday has stated that India hoped that the ongoing security issue concerning BlackBerry services would be resolved and the government would receive access to the electronic messages.

Meanwhile RIM, Research In Motion’s BlackBerry services is facing flak in other countries, especially in the Middle East too. The governments here fear that consumers might take undue advantage of the secure services provided by blackberry to aid terrorism or peddle pornography.

RIM’s encrypted messaging and mail service has been threatened to be shut down in India, unless the government gained access to it.

Earlier this month, India began accessing some of the traffic carried on this Smartphone device as part of the campaign that unmonitored messaging and mails could put the country’s security at risk.

Telecom Minister Andimuthu Raja told reporters “I do hope it will be resolved.”

On august 30th 2010, RIM had offered several ways in which the authorities could monitor the Blackberry communications, said the Interior Ministry in India. Over the next 60 days, the feasibility of these methods would be checked by the government.

Raja however refused to reveal the solutions offered by RIM and said “We are periodically reviewing.”

However, the encrypted corporate email being at the heart of RIM’s business, RIM has insisted that they would not be able to decode this service.

The company is yet to confirm if India’s security agencies have started accessing Blackberry traffic.

While notices have also been sent to Skype and Google, India is also urging RIM to set up a local server in the country, which would allow the security agencies to monitor the entire web data easily.

The Telecom Commission, Raja has confirmed would also offer bail out options to the new telecom operations who are struggling to stay afloat in the overcrowded 15 player telecom market in India. These companies are facing a lot of issues due to the low tariffs and the high operational costs.

As per the current regulations in India, the telecom operators cannot sell out their operations within three years of their existence. The last batch of telecom operators who received their license in 2008 would have to wait another year to sell out.

Raja also said “In the last operators’ meeting, it was highlighted bailout provisions may be done. It will be discussed in the Telecom Commission”.

The BlackBerry issue is not yet resolved; the government is stepping up efforts to get data access to all communication services in the country. The Home Secretary G K Pillai said that notices are being sent to all companies providing communication services in India to make available access solutions to security agencies so that they can monitor the data as and when required. The firms are also being asked to set up a server in India.

Most important among the service providers who are issued notices are Google and Skype, the internet phone call provider. The notice asks the firms to make suitable arrangements to provide access to their services within the next 60 days.

Meanwhile, Research In Motion (RIM), the BlackBerry maker averted an imminent ban on its services by agreeing to set up a server in India and provide partial access to its encrypted data. Home Minister P Chidambaram confirmed that RIM has already begun providing access to some of the communications transmitted through its system. The government has given the smartphone maker a 60-day extension of August 31 deadline for complete compliance. The minister added that there won’t be any compromise on national security with regards to BlackBerry, Google or Skype.

“Discussion on technical solutions for further access is continuing and the matter will be reviewed within 60 days,” the minister concluded. “Our stand is firm. We look forward to get access to data… There is no uncertainty over it.”

Mr. Pillai said, “People who operate communication services in India should have servers in India as well as make available access to law enforcement agencies, whatever communications passes through telecommunication network in India and that has been made clear to RIM of BlackBerry but also to other companies.”

The insistence by Intelligence Bureau (IB) to monitor, intercept and block 3G services before their rollout has placed a big question mark over the launch date. IB has asked all 3G service providers, who won the recently concluded auction, to exhibit their capability in this area. The service providers were planning for a launch early next year and the government had agreed to handover airwaves by September to enable this. However, with IB playing spoilsport, it remains to be seen whether this deadline will be met or not.

Indian security agencies have been voicing their concern about telecommunication services that cannot be monitored by them for the past couple of years. Internet telephony such as Skype, chat facility in Google Talk and video calls offered through 3G services, when availed on mobile phones are untraceable for the agencies. Similar services offered through 2G services are within the ambit of the Indian intelligence agencies, as they possess technology to monitor the data transferred.

As a part of the security tightening measures, the agencies are engaged in a tussle with the BlackBerry maker, Research In Motion (RIM) over providing access to their encryption keys. This is heading towards a complete or partial ban of its services in the country. While the interim solution offered by RIM is still being tested by the IB, the home ministry has called for a meeting with all telecom operators providing BlackBerry services.

Telecom PSUs, BSNL and MTNL are already offering 3G services, which is now being targeted by the security agencies. The Department of Telecom (DoT) has sent directions to both to install lawful interception mechanisms for all its 3G services within 15 days. The home ministry’s directive to DoT says, “Till a solution is arrived in this regard, all telecom service providers may kindly be directed not to provide 3G services, particularly in J&K.”

3G or Third Generation mobile phone services include wireless voice telephone, video conferencing, high-speed internet and interactive gaming.

India’s first 3.5G tablet, OlivePad VT100 has been launched by Olive Telecom. This multi functional device supports 3.5G HSUPA, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and works on the Google Android Operating System.

The Olive Pad’s has great functionality and can be used for social networking, gaming, TV, as an e-book reader, multimedia player, GPS for maps and turn by turn directions, instant messaging and browsing. Thus, it fulfills the role of a touch notebook and also has an in-built 3 mega pixel camera and front camera. Voice and video calling is also possible as the Olive Pad that works as a smart phone.

Mini USB port and Flash support is also included and it is expected to be available in retail stores in August.

David Hind the CEO of Olive Telecom , America commented while unveiling the new tablet  “We are excited to launch the much awaited OlivePad in India. This latest creation from Olive will bring revolution in the field of technology with its magical features & stylish looks. Our global consumers are going to love this device because of the experience that it provides.”

“With Olive Pad we launch a new generation of mobile devices which become your true window to the world in your pocket. With the same concept, we will evolve into more and more convergence devices giving the same reach and affordable experience to customers in India and across the world. We have received tremendous response from operators and consumers in highly sophisticated markets of Central, Eastern Europe and Russia and expect to launch Olive Pad in that market in the near future” said Artem Orange who is the CEO for Olive Telecom, CIS/CEE.