'India's BlackBerry offensive widens to Google, Skype'

NEW DELHI — India's showdown with BlackBerry could reportedly widen to encompass Google and Skype after the government threatened to cut off core features of the popular smartphone on security grounds.Research In Motion, the BlackBerry's Canadian maker, gave no immediate indication that it would accede to the latest pressure from an emerging economy to open up its services to security agencies."If a technical solution is not provided by August 31, 2010, the government will review the position and take steps to block" BlackBerry email and messenger services, India's home ministry said late Thursday.New Delhi, battling insurgencies ranging from Kashmir in the northwest to the far-flung northeast, fears heavily encrypted BlackBerry communications could be used by militants.Islamic attackers used mobile and satellite phones to coordinate the brazen three-day assault on Mumbai in 2008 that killed 166 people.India's telecom operators declined to comment Friday on the ultimatum."We have to wait to see how the story unfolds, it is a very fluid situation," said an executive at one wireless company. Sanjay Kapoor, South Asia chief of leading mobile operator Bharti Airtel, said earlier in the week: "Of course, we're aligned to the government as far as national security interests are concerned. We just hope customer interests are also protected."The Indian deadline came after Saudi Arabia on Tuesday postponed imposing a BlackBerry ban as the ultra-conservative Muslim country reported progress in solving its own security concerns.The United Arab Emirates, however, has said it will ban BlackBerry messenger, email and web browsing services from October 11 for security reasons. That has prompted expressions of concern from the US government.In response to the Indian threat, RIM said it tried to be as cooperative as possible with governments "in the spirit of supporting legal and national security requirements".But it also wanted to preserve "the lawful needs of citizens and corporations".Analysts have noted that other se

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