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| India-Pakistan |
| Blackberry services go offline across country |
| 2010-05-22 |
| ISLAMABAD: On the directives of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) for blocking Facebook in the country, all cellular companies froze Blackberry services until further notice. Although the PTA had blocked Facebook, the website was still accessible on Blackberry handsets as these services are routed through RIM servers. According to sources, the PTA has asked all cellular companies to put an immediate cap on all Blackberry services until further notice. The PTA had issued the directives on the orders of the Lahore High Court, who had asked the government to make sure that Facebook was blocked for all Internet users in the country. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #8 my brand-spanking new BB Storm 2 does all the usual, plus camera, plus...stuff I don't even know how to do yet. That said, I liked my old LG Env2....it just didn't do well in the permanent press cycle |
| Posted by: Frank G 2010-05-22 11:08 |
| #7 Classical Liberal nails it. re: "nobody needs a BlackBerry anymore"- Unlike smartphones, many BlackBerry models lack cameras. That makes them a better choice than smartphones for government people who are out of the office a lot, need to check email to get things done but should not deliberately or inadvertently take photos of documents or other material. In classified settings, all comms capability on the BBs is turned off. But there is a lot of sensitive data that is not classified but must not be shared - personnel and acquisition information, for instance. The same is true in many corporate settings. |
| Posted by: lotp 2010-05-22 10:29 |
| #6 Practically every smart phone these days gets web and email. And plays all kinds of music and video. I just got a new cell phone and the tri-lingual Verizon instructions had 10 inadequate pages on the cell phone and 50 pages on video and music. It is hard to believe I lived long enough to get to the point where I would ask for a POTS cell phone. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2010-05-22 06:58 |
| #5 Blackberry has proprietary (and encrypted) network connectivity between the mobile device and RIM's data centers--which are not in Pakistan. Your Blackberry talks in a secure manner to RIM's infrastructure which proxies Internet connections on your behalf, e.g. a web session to Facebook. Country level authorities like Pakistan can't get in the middle of your Blackberry network traffic to block, filter or monitor. The PTA probably asked RIM to filter Facebook on their behalf, and RIM probably told them to pound sand. Instructing Pakistani mobile carriers doing business with RIM to disable *all* Blackberry data traffic was probably the only way to ensure compliance with the Facebook order. |
| Posted by: Classical_Liberal 2010-05-22 06:48 |
| #4 Practically every smart phone these days gets web and email. And many of them can connect to your work email and sync your contacts and calendar. Nobody needs a "blackberry" anymore. That functionality is becoming ubiquitous. |
| Posted by: crosspatch 2010-05-22 03:27 |
| #3 "My blackberry is dead! DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM!?!?" Posted by Charles Yes, yes, your the bloke with NO previous work experience. Sorry, but we're not hiring at the moment. Please come back after December, 2012. Sales are down. It's a dreadful economy right now. Things might be looking up a bit after that. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2010-05-22 03:27 |
| #2 And here was I imagining Obama getting driven to the newest Best Buy and running in to grab someone. "My blackberry is dead! DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM!?!?" |
| Posted by: Charles 2010-05-22 02:13 |
| #1 Oh, thank G*d. From the headline, I thought they meant in the US. Although it would be funny to see all the CrackBerry addicts start twitching when they can't check their email every 10 seconds. |
| Posted by: Rambler in Virginia 2010-05-22 00:58 |