India has agreed not to block BlackBerry services in the country for at least 60 days while it reviews a proposal submitted by Research in Motion, the country's Ministry of Home Affairs announced Monday.
The Indian government and RIM officials have been discussing lawful access to RIM systems for several weeks, and RIM has "made certain proposals for lawful access by law enforcement agencies," the ministry said in a statement.
India must now assess the "feasibility of the solutions," the ministry said.
Union Home Secretary Shri G.K. Pillai, as well as representatives from Indian security agencies and the country's telecom department held a meeting Monday to discuss the issue.
Last month, India threatened to shut down BlackBerry services in the country by Aug. 31 unless RIM allowed the government to monitor activity on BlackBerry services.
"Ministry of Home Affairs have made it clear that any communication through the telecom networks should be accessible to the law enforcement agencies and all telecom service providers including third parties have to comply with this," the agency said Monday.
On Friday, RIM extended a deal to the government of India whereby RIM would head up an industry forum that would assist with the "lawful access needs of law enforcement agencies" while preserving the security needs of its corporate clients.
India said Monday that the Department of Telecommunications is looking into whether RIM's India operations should be routed "through a server located only in India." On Friday, however, RIM denied that locating its infrastructure within India would help the problem because "all data remains encrypted at all times and through all points of transfer between the customer's BlackBerry Enterprise Server and the customer's device."
The Ministry said it will review RIM's proposal and submit a report in 60 days.
India is not the only country threatening a BlackBerry ban. Earlier this summer, the United Arab Emirates said it would block BlackBerry services starting Oct. 11. Days later, Saudi Arabia said it would block BlackBerry services by Aug. 6, but the kingdom later granted RIM an extension while talks continued.