DUBAI, United Arab Emirates—A ban on key BlackBerry services in the UAE was given extra weight on Tuesday, when one of the country’s leading telecom companies announced a plan to give out hundreds of thousands of iPhones as compensation to affected customers.
The cost of supplying replacement smartphones for up to 500,000 BlackBerry customers in the UAE has not been disclosed, but it is likely to be an indicator of how far away the country is from reaching an agreement with BlackBerry developer Research in Motion (RIM).
On Monday, the Waterloo, Ontario based company released a statement saying that it “will not compromise the integrity and security of the BlackBerry.”
“The BlackBerry security architecture was specifically designed to provide corporate customers with the ability to transmit information wirelessly while also providing them with the necessary confidence that no one, including RIM, could access their data,” the statement said.
A launch party for the new BlackBerry Pearl, an eagerly awaited consumer offering, was canceled on Tuesday.
The party, planned for Wednesday at the glamorous Armani Hotel in the Burj Khalifa—the world’s tallest building—was “postponed indefinitely,” a spokesman said.
The future of BlackBerry in the austere Gulf state has come under doubt after the country’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) announced that it was going to ban BlackBerry Messenger, Web browsing, and mail from Oct.11.
The block—which also affects foreign BlackBerry users on roaming—will likely hit hard in cosmopolitan Dubai, a major tourist and business hub.
The plan to distribute a choice of 12 smartphones to BlackBerry users was announced on Tuesday by state-owned telecoms provider Etisalat.
Its rival provider, du—also a state-owned company—is also planning to provide an alternative for BlackBerry users.
The cost of supplying replacement smartphones for up to 500,000 BlackBerry customers in the UAE has not been disclosed, but it is likely to be an indicator of how far away the country is from reaching an agreement with BlackBerry developer Research in Motion (RIM).
On Monday, the Waterloo, Ontario based company released a statement saying that it “will not compromise the integrity and security of the BlackBerry.”
“The BlackBerry security architecture was specifically designed to provide corporate customers with the ability to transmit information wirelessly while also providing them with the necessary confidence that no one, including RIM, could access their data,” the statement said.
A launch party for the new BlackBerry Pearl, an eagerly awaited consumer offering, was canceled on Tuesday.
The party, planned for Wednesday at the glamorous Armani Hotel in the Burj Khalifa—the world’s tallest building—was “postponed indefinitely,” a spokesman said.
The future of BlackBerry in the austere Gulf state has come under doubt after the country’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) announced that it was going to ban BlackBerry Messenger, Web browsing, and mail from Oct.11.
The block—which also affects foreign BlackBerry users on roaming—will likely hit hard in cosmopolitan Dubai, a major tourist and business hub.
The plan to distribute a choice of 12 smartphones to BlackBerry users was announced on Tuesday by state-owned telecoms provider Etisalat.
Its rival provider, du—also a state-owned company—is also planning to provide an alternative for BlackBerry users.
