BlackBerry has said that it has delivered the technology to monitor contents on its messenger service and has asked the government to issue a directive to the operators to connect to its new automated service.

Canadian firm Research in Motion (RIM) is installing and testing a new service, to be made available before January 31, which will automatically render lawfully intercepted BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) messages in a format readable by Indian agencies.

In a letter to the Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal, RIM Vice President (Industry, Government and University Relations), Robert E Crow, said, "It is our understanding, however, that the carriers (service providers) require an explicit directive from the Government of India before proceeding."

"...It would be to the benefit of all involved for the Government to now issue a directive that will allow the operators to complete their connection to the new automated service and thereby satisfy the Government of India's final outstanding request regarding BBM," he added.

However, lawful access does not extend to the enterprise Virtual Private Network (VPN) solution, provided through the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) product.

There can be no change to the security architecture for BES in India or any other country as the decoding of BES emails by RIM is not technically possible given that neither RIM nor the wireless operators are ever in possession of the customers' encryption keys, the letter said.

Crow has also sought a meeting with Sibal to discuss further the issues relating to lawful interception and services being provided by BlackBerry.

Earlier, RIM had assured the Government that they will provide final solution for the lawful interception of BlackBerry Messenger services by January 31, 2011. The company had said that this was the understanding that they were to put in place the system by January 31.

BlackBerry has over one million subscribers in India, which is one of the fastest growing markets in the world in terms of new subscriber additions.