UAE threatens to block all RIM BlackBerry services

All United Arab Emirates BlackBerry users today received this message:

Dear Valued Customer,

The UAE's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority has decided to suspend BlackBerry services from Oct 11, 2010. In accordance with this decision Etisalat will soon announce alternative mobility products and services.

Please visit www.etisalat.ae/blackberry for further information and updates

After UAE telecoms company Etisalat sent out their data snatching “virus” about a year ago – the UAE telecoms authority have been negotiation with RIM to open up for “data sharing” of UAE users BlackBerry data transfers (Messages, Mail, Web usage etc) – it seems like the negotiations has come to an abrupt halt.

To cite the TRA (The UAE Telecoms Regulatory Authority) – “In the current form certain BlackBerry services allow users to act without any accountability, causing judicial, social and national security concerns in the UAE”

In plain terms it means “We want to snoop on your messages and data transfers without a court order – and if we can’t we will just block the services”

I see this of course as a attempt to force RIM/BlackBerry back to the negotiations table. But if it will work is uncertain.

So will the UAE really block all BlackBerry services as of October 11 2010? I don’t think so. Every single statesman and woman from Sheik to Sheika are BlackBerry users. Most of the Government owned investment companies (Sovereign Wealth Funds) – uses BlackBerry.

Skype still working in Dubai

Skype got the servers up and running again. And much to my joy I can say that Skype is still working without a hitch on my DU internet line. Skype In / Skype out works perfectly. So I have been bold and once again enabled my SMC and Netgear Wi-Fi Skype phones, updated the firmware on both, and are now "contactable" on my Skype in numbers wherever I got a Wi-Fi signal.

I would love to hear if Etisalat users have access to Skype without VPN too. Leave a comment please!

I'm still waiting for a resultion to the problem between my Netgear 854T and the SMC Phone. Updates will follow.

Skype is back and working and Skype works in Dubai

Now all Skype problems seems to have gone again.

Nice J and I can still confirm that Skype works without a hitch in Dubai without VPN or other tricks. At least on my different DU lines. (version 3.5.0.202).

I have not tried on Etisalat yet.

Skype in Dubai – working today

As some of you might have noticed, my residence is in Dubai. A country where the government has an active protection policy towards Internet usage. That means that a lot of things are blocked, so you can't access them.

There are two telecoms companies here. Etisalat and DU. Both are partly owned by the government of Dubai. And each has different "content" blocks in place, protecting people from themselves. J

But that bad thing is – that both are blocking access to use Internet Phones now. Before only Etisalat was blocking access, but now both block by active packet inspection. That unfortunately means no access to VoIP without VPN (Virtual Private Network).

The protection is done to protect their phone revenues, since 70% of the population here are expats. So International phoning is a big revenue generator for them. (Some say as much as 80% of their income is from International Phone charges)

But the past couple of days, it actually seems like Skype 3.5.0.202 can get through perfectly without any problems. (On the DU network anyway)

One can only hope they are coming to their senses and are opening up for VoIP use. Unfortunately SIP is still blocked by them L