Smartphone maker Blackberry announced Monday it will continue its operations in Pakistan after the country’s government rescinded a shutdown order issued to the company in 2015.
At the heart of the dispute was the government’s demand for access to “all BlackBerry Enterprise Service traffic in the country, including every BES email and BES BBM message.”
Following Blackberry’s refusal to submit to the government’s monitoring, the Pakistani government ordered the company to discontinue its secure messaging service for “security reasons”
After discussions between the company and the government, Blackberry COO Marty Beard wrote in a Monday blog post that the government decided to rescind the order.
Blackberry had previously planned to end its Pakistan operations as of December 30 under the order. Thanks to the government’s change in stance, however, Beard said the company has decided to remain in the Pakistan market.
“We are grateful to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority and the Pakistani government for accepting BlackBerry’s position that we cannot provide the content of our customers’ BES traffic, nor will we provide access to our BES servers,” Beard wrote. “We look forward to serving the Pakistani market for years to come, including introducing new products and services, and thank our valued customers in Pakistan for their patience and loyalty.”
