RIM-India: To meet again over security

The Indian government will hold its next meeting with BlackBerry-maker RIM next week, a government official has said, as the two sides look for a way to meet India's security concerns.

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India's Ministry of Telecommunications has written to RIM asking for servers to be installed in India, which it says would help agencies monitor BlackBerry services.

A telecoms ministry spokeswoman told Reuters: "The next meeting is on 21 April. BlackBerry experts are working to reach a solution which is acceptable to the security agencies. The status quo continues."

The Indian government has held a series of meetings with RIM and mobile operators after it emerged security officials were worried that emails sent through BlackBerry devices could not be traced or intercepted.

RIM's spokesman for India restated the Canadian company's position that it would not comment on confidential regulatory matters.

BlackBerry services are offered in India by four providers Bharti Airtel, BPL Mobile, Reliance Communications and Vodafone.

The spokesman said BlackBerry's worldwide user base had reached 14 million at the end of March, from 12 million in December.

RIM would not give India-specific subscriber figures, but an analyst has said there are more than half a million BlackBerry users in India.