Nokia Messaging Services has been asked by the Government of India to halt its push e-mail services in India.
Push e-mail systems provide an always-on capability; new e-mail is actively pushed/transferred by the e-mail server as it arrives to the e-mail client. E-mail clients include smartphones and may also include PC mail applications based on IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol).
The pioneering service from BlackBerry (RIM) became popular because new e-mails appear on the mobile as soon as they arrive, without the need for any user intervention; the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) which monitors the e-mail server pulls/retrieves a copy of the mail as it arrives and then pushes it to the appropriate BlackBerry mobile. The handheld mobile device becomes a dynamic replica of a user’s Inbox.
The success of BlackBerry has encouraged other manufacturers to develop push e-mail systems for other handheld devices based on other operating platforms like Symbian.
In late 2010, RIM was banned from providing Push e-mail service in the absence of a facility to monitor e-mails from its Blackberry mobile devices. Though RIM was asked to provide a solution by 31 March 2011, it is expected to take much longer to have a suitable monitoring mechanism in place.
After RIM, it is now Nokia’s turn to face a road block. Citing security concerns, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has temporarily banned Nokia’s Push e-mail services in India. The Intelligence Bureau of India has asked the service providers in India to defer Push /Power Email service till a monitoring system is in place.
India is one of the largest markets for Nokia mobiles. According to Nokia, E-mail service is being activated in more than 50% of the Nokia E-series phones sold in the country translating into over 1,00,000 activations a month for its messaging e-mail service in India.
Nokia Messaging Email is a push e-mail service and client application. It supports most of the popular e-mail providers like Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, and Gmail. Nokia Messaging servers gather messages from up to ten accounts and push them to compatible mobile devices.
Nokia, in its e-mail response to the Economic Times, is reported to have stated: “We have been working proactively with Government authorities, including setting up servers in India. It is our endeavour at Nokia to comply fully with legal requirements wherever we operate. In offering our services in India, we have adhered to the rules and regulations as required by the Indian Government.”
The uncertainty enveloping Blackberry services now extends to Nokia as well and the majority of the users – who are innocuous and innocent and are by no means a security threat – wait with bated breath for a resolution of the issue which has no bearing on or meaning for them.
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