The Pakistan government has asked mobile phone operators to discontinue the use of BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) in the country by November 30. The government is citing security concerns around the enterprise services, and the decision was made following a meeting of several government departments in mid-July. A notification issued by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Friday said:

"Due to serious concerns expressed by security agencies, Mobilink, Ufone and Telenor are requested to give their BES customers 90 days notice for closing their connections by or before Nov 30, 2015."

While the company is asking for BES to be discontinued, it was clarified that other BlackBerry services, such as BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) and BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) would be able to continue in the country. There are currently between 4,000 to 5,000 BES subscribers in Pakistan currently who would be affected. Non-government organizations are criticizing the decisions, stating that it poorly affects the public interest in many ways.

With how much BlackBerry is pushing its security measures, it is sure interesting to see Pakistan citing security as the main reason for this.

Source: Dawn