India counting down to BlackBerry ban?

If you’ve got a BlackBerry, you might want to hold off taking it on holiday to India for a while. According to Reuters, representatives from the country’s mobile operators are meeting with government officials to discuss the possible security implications around RIM’s mobile email service. Apparently, the government is so concerned, the idea of a BlackBerry ban has been floated.

Reuters add that Indian security agencies want RIM to provide the government with all the necessary algorithms to break the encryption used by the BlackBerry, while The Business Standard suggests that if the algorithms aren’t delivered, RIM could find itself cut off from the end of March.

It’s not the first time RIM has found itself under the microscope over security concerns and even threatened with a ban, but this is thought to be the first time that it’s been asked to hand over its encryption keys. It’ll be interesting to see whether RIM would rather hand over the goods or keep its crown jewels safe and face being locked out of a massive market.