UAE drops Blackberry plan

The United Arab Emirates today backed off a threat to cut key BlackBerry services, just days before a ban was set to take effect that could have harmed the country’s business-friendly reputation.

The last-minute decision ended more than two months of brinksmanship with the Canadian company that makes the smart phones.

The ban on email, messaging and web services – which the government threatened to impose over security concerns – was due to take effect on Monday.

Half a million local users and thousands of BlackBerry-toting business travellers would have been affected. Dubai’s airport, the region’s busiest, handles about 100,000 passengers daily.

“It’s going to come as quite a relief,” said BlackBerry user Matthew Reed, a Dubai-based analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media, a research firm. “It was not at all clear what would happen until right up to the end.”

The Emirates telecommunications regulator confirmed that a deal had been reached with device maker Research in Motion Ltd that brought the devices into compliance with local laws.

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority Acknowledged “the positive engagement and collaboration of Research In Motion (RIM) in reaching this regulatory compliant outcome.”

It wasn’t clear what concessions, if any, the Canadian device maker made to avert the ban.

The UAE city-state of Dubai hosts the regional headquarters of numerous multinational companies, many of whom ship goods through its seaport, the busiest in the Middle East. The Emirati capital of Abu Dhabi is one of the world’s largest oil producers and an increasingly important source of investment capital.

BlackBerrys are popular because data sent through them is seen as highly secure.

But Emirati authorities have raised concerns that the phones’ security features could be misused by terrorists and criminals.