Oh joy. #TRA to suspend #UAE #Blackberry services

Blackberry services are to be blocked from October. Jeff Topping / The National

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority has said that Blackberry Messenger, Blackberry E-mail and Blackberry Web-browsing services in the UAE will be suspended as of October 11.

The suspension is a result of the failure of ongoing attempts, dating back to 2007, to bring Blackberry services in the UAE in line with UAE telecommunications regulations.

Both telecommunications operators, Etisalat and du,were informed of the decision earlier today. The notification was delivered with an instruction to ensure minimal consumer disruption in the provision of alternative services.

All Blackberry services fall within the UAE regulatory framework developed by the TRA since 2007, however because of Blackberry's technical configuration, some Blackberry services operate beyond the enforcement these regulations, the TRA stated.

Blackberry data is immediately exported offshore, where it is managed by a foreign, commercial organisation. Blackberry data services are currently the only data services operating in the UAE where this is the case.

Today's decision is based on the fact that, in their current form, certain Blackberry services allow users to act without any legal accountability, causing judicial, social and national security concerns for the UAE.

Commenting on the announcement, the TRA director general Mohamed Al Ghanim said: "With no solution available and in the public interest, in order to affect resolution of this issue, as of October 11, 2010, Blackberry Messenger, Blackberry Email and Blackberry Web-browsing services will be suspended until an acceptable solution can be developed and applied."

"We informed both Etisalat and du that providing the option of alternative services to ensure the continuity of service from October 11 to its subscribers - both individuals and organisations - is the most important priority." Mr Al Ghanim added.

Mr Al Ghanim said, "The TRA notes that Blackberry appears to be compliant in similar regulatory environments of other countries, which makes non-compliance in the UAE both disappointing and of great concern."

via thenational.ae

Oh, brilliant. Coming hot at the heels of this news where they were "clear" that "we don't have plans to stop them" by the TRA Spokesperson, this is starting to get ridiculous. As such, we have issues with Skype, and restrictions over everything else. All the 20 years of building free zones and all that fun stuff to bring businesses to the UAE comes to nought if you're not going to let businesses communicate.

Yes yes, they'll either then announce, "Oh it was a misunderstanding," or the even better, "Look BlackBerry caved and we found a solution" memo before the deadline. But still, this is a huge issue for businesses. It leaves an unsettling doubt. Not a good sign. The right way would have been to give BlackBerry the deadline, sort out the issue, announce that you're working with RIM and then announce it when you have a solution. Golly, I don't even work in PR.

I'm an iPhone lover myself, but one thing's certain, businesses run on BlackBerry. And after hearing this, the iPhone or the Android are hardly out of danger, are they? I can already see the announcement: "We don't like their App Store/Marketplace."

App review: Seesmic for iPhone

Originally posted at the Shufflegazine Blog

The awesome people at Seesmic finally got around to launching their iPhone application last week.

I’ve been a fan of Seesmic from rather early days. To me, they edged out TweetDeck as the Desktop Twitter client to have at the time, having launched support for multiple accounts and integrating Facebook support before anyone else did. Since then I’ve moved on to Seesmic Web (I’d recommend it any day considering it doesn’t use Adobe AIR. But I digress…)

I’ll leave the app comparison for another day, but I think Seesmic’s iPhone app’s first rendition is quite good overall.

The first thing that struck me about the app was the seemingly blazing response time, both in terms of loading new information and response using the touchscreen. By this I mean that a lot of apps I use (I’m not talking just Twitter apps) are effectively hung until their update/reload is complete – this does not seem to be the case here. While I wait for the latest tweets to be updated, I can still navigate around the app freely.

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Why you shouldn't bother with #Etisalat

What did we learn today? When Etisalat says there's no problem at their end, you shouldn't believe them.

Okay, seriously, where do I begin?
Let me take you through my day today. At 10:30 a.m. I received a call from a customer of mine telling me they had lost all network access - the IP phones weren't connecting, they couldn't receive e-mail, etc. etc. Since no other engineer was available, I visited the site.
 
With an interconnectivity between Dubai and Germany and backup operations in Spain, this was a mildly cumbersome task, getting the right people on board to help diagnose the issue. I spent almost two hours trying to diagnose where the issue was coming from and of course, it was from Dubai.
 
Since the hardware had been checked already, I decided it was time to do the unthinkable - contact Etisalat. For those who follow this (people do?) and don't know Etisalat (subtotal: 0.5 people), they're our sole telecom provider in the UAE. Yes, DU, you're there too, but honestly, the only thing you compete with are mobile phones. For anything else, we're not given a choice, and for business requirements, we only have Etisalat. So yea, sole provider.
 
So I call Etisalat help, 101, who after running through some transfers, tell me, "Leased Line is a separate department, please call 04 xxx xxxx". Right cool. In parallel, I might add, I'm trying to reach two separate account managers, both of whom are unreachable (which is okay, that happens).
 
So what happens when I call the number?
Attempt 1: <bad number>
Attempt 2: <bad number>
Attempt 3: Rings, rings, user busy.
Attempt 4: Rings, rings, user busy.

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Technology

Right, so no surprises the posts have been few and far between.

I have been embracing the online revolution in the meantime. Twitter and fb. It's amazing what an online presence they give you - we're also trying that out company-wise, so I'd like to see how we are able to work that into the scheme of things.

Other than that, there's not a lot. Work is pushing along, things are moving in routine, and there are signs it might pick up.  But at least I've been on the move a little. Driving around always seems to keep me happy.

Right, speaking of the revolution, I've also adopted the iPhone. Phenomenal gadget in its own right, albeit with a few flaws. But they're fairly new, and there's good scope for improvement. I'd be very interested to see what happens in June.

Finally - and this seems to be the common theme around the world - is the need for a vacation. My last attempt at it didn't quite work out, heck, it didn't anything out and I'm still recovering from that. At least I know not to visit a gym the first day of vacation. Ever.