DoT bans Nokia’s push e-mail service in India

Nokia suffered a major setback with the Department of Telecom (DOT) asking the Finnish manufacturer to halt the proposed push email service till a proper monitoring system is put in place.

The Nokia is the second manufacturer, after RIM to face this issue from the Indian government. Ministry of Home Affairs in a communication to Department of Telecom stated, "In view of the Intelligence Bureau's report, Department of Telecommunications is requested to advice the Telecom Service Providers not to launch Nokia's proposed pushmail/powermail service without putting in place monitoring facilities to the satisfaction of the LEAs."

Nokia's messaging services like the push email which enable users to manage multiple accounts for Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, Hotmail and Rediff mail are under the scanner.

According to the Financial Express, "the DoT and the department of information technology have been asked by the home ministry to bring in the necessary changes in the Indian Telegraph Act of 1885, the Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2007, the Rules under Telegraph & IT Acts to ensure operator compliance with the demands of the security agencies."

Once the amendments come into effect, all the telcos will have to put a service system in place to deliver authorised intercepts based on telephone numbers, device identity, email IDs, IP
addresses or keywords to the national security agencies on real-time basis.

Mike Lazaridis, CEO of RIM recently stormed off a BBC technology show when the correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones quizzed him about the RIM's problems in India and the Middle East.

Lazaridis who first tried to playdown the question, later said it was “unfair” and the company was facing no security problems.

There are speculations that the Canada-based wireless technology company has given access to the Indian government to monitor its services in India. There is no official word as of now from Nokia on it's next course of action.