BlackBerry service at risk, again

Research In Motion (RIM) is reneging on a promise to build a data center in Indonesia, according to government officials, who say they may respond by ending service for RIM’s BlackBerry smartphones across the nation.

In a meeting in January with Communications and Information Technology Minister Tifatul Sembiring, RIM promised to concede to government demands to open local customer care and service centers, allow the authorized surveillance of private communication on its local network, block pornography and build a “network aggregator” regional data center.

However, the agreement did not specify where RIM would build the data center, which the government said was needed to monitor and protect data sent by the millions of fervent BlackBerry users in Indonesia.

Currently, all data exchanged through the BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) and BlackBerry Messager (BBM) service is processed in Canada.

In a meeting on Thursday, Jason Saunderson, a representative of the Canada-based smartphone manufacturer, told representatives of the ministry and the Indonesian Telecommunications Regulation Body (BRTI) that RIM would build a router, instead of a data center, in Singapore.

BRTI member Heru Sutadi said that RIM’s decision would likely lead to the termination of all BlackBerry service in Indonesia.

“Because RIM has not been cooperative, it is possible that we will soon end BIS and BBM services. A BlackBerry, therefore, would just be like other cellular phones,” Heru told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Heru said that presence of a RIM server or data center in Indonesia was in the interests of national security.

“If the server is not here, we cannot trace potential terrorism and corruption cases. We also have no idea what they are doing with data from Indonesian users,” he said.

Communications and Information Technology Ministry spokesman Gatot S. Dewa Broto said that the termination of BlackBerry service would be the worst-case outcome of the dispute.

“We deplore RIM’s decision. RIM is overconfident because it has a huge customer base in Indonesia. We have reported the results of the Thursday meeting to our minister. Termination is an option, however. It now depends on the minister,” Gatot told the Post on the telephone on Friday.

Indonesia boasted 2.63 million BlackBerry users in 2010 – the largest number in Southeast Asia – and is on track for 4 million users by the end of the year.

Gatot said that RIM told Indonesian officials that it chose to build router in Singapore due to the island nation’s superior infrastructure.

Emails requesting comment from RIM East Asia public relations chief Oliver Pilgerstorfer were not returned as of press time.

The government and public were irked by RIM’s decision to open an assembly plant in Malaysia in July, instead of Indonesia.

Indonesian Consumer Protection Foundation (YLKI) chairman Sudaryatmo said that RIM had the guts to break its promises as the government was being indecisive.

“Indonesia has a big population that is a potential market for the telecommunications industry. The potential should have been used as a bargaining chip to make vendors build factories here,” Sudaryatmo said.

“We cannot blame RIM because it may see that no vendors entering the Indonesian market are building factories here. Our communications strategy is not clear enough,” Sudaryatmo said.

“If the government has dignity, it may terminate BlackBerry service although it will face protests from customers,” Sudaryatmo said. (rcf)