UAE decision to ban BlackBerry services 'final'

A decision to suspend key BlackBerry smartphone services that were deemed noncompliant with the laws of the United Arab Emirates is "final," the WAM news agency reported on Wednesday.

"The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority's (TRA) decision to suspend certain Blackberry services from October 11th is final," WAM quoted a statement by TRA director-general Mohammed al-Ghanem as saying.

"We remain open to discussions in order that an acceptable, regulatory-compliant solution might be developed and applied," WAM quoted him as saying.

The UAE announced on Sunday that BlackBerry services including messenger, web browsing and email will be suspended on October 11 because they "allow individuals to commit violations" that the country cannot monitor.

BlackBerry's encrypted emails and data are stored on servers in Canada, the headquarters of its maker, Research in Motion. That means that third parties, such as security agencies, cannot monitor communications sent and received on the handset.

Service providers have been ordered to block the services until a solution is found.