Article

2010-05-22 India-Pakistan

Blackberry services go offline across country

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Posted by Steve White 2010-05-22 00:00|| || Front Page|| [5 views ] Top

#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|| 2010-05-22 00:58|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2010-05-22 02:13|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2010-05-22 03:27|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2010-05-22 03:27|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2010-05-22 06:48|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2010-05-22 06:58|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2010-05-22 10:29|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2010-05-22 11:08|| Front Page Top

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