JEDDAH, Mar 5 (Arab News): Subscribers might soon be saying bye-bye to the BlackBerry — at least if they use the phone because of its unique messaging service.
“If I lose this service I would sell my BlackBerry,” said Jawaher Abbar, a college student in Jeddah. “Why would I keep it? I bought it especially for this service.”
Local media reports say the Communication and Information Technology Commission (CITC) has asked Canada-based Research In Motion, the company that owns the popular mobile device, to allow the telecommunications regulator access to monitor messages sent by BlackBerry Messenger, or BBM. BBM is a special messaging service for BlackBerry phone users. For a monthly flat fee, BlackBerry owners can send and share messages, IM and multimedia with other BlackBerry owners.
Rumors have been spreading that the BBM service will stop on Saturday. The CITC was unavailable for comment on Thursday.
A source at Saudi Telecom Co. said the CITC has not contacted the company regarding this issue.
“I hope this is not true, but if it were I would trade it with an iPhone. It’s much better anyways,” said Raneem Jazzar, a local university student.
According to a report in Thursday’s Al-Watan newspaper, the CITC wants to have access in order to monitor the messages in the BBM network, threatening to shut down the service for noncompliance.
Subscribers were upset with this report.
“As a BlackBerry user, this will harm my career,” said Mostafa Fahmi, who works in marketing for a car company in Jeddah. “To lose this service quality will negatively effect my time consumption and hurt my productivity.”
Fahmi suggested that a better solution would be to keep the service running until a solution to the problem could be found.
“I would be really disappointed if they stop this service because it is easier and cheaper for me to connect with my friends inside and outside the Kingdom,” said Khadija Kuwaiti, a working student in Jeddah.
“If the CITC stops this service now it shows that they didn’t study the whole situation properly,” said local businessman Omar Al-Tamimi.