Canada based, Research In Motion (RIM) has urged the government of India to set up a joint consultative forum in order to help prepare mechanisms to enable security agencies intercept its encrypted BlackBerry email and messenger services.

The government has asked the makers of the popular BlackBerry smartphones to provide access to its data services or face a ban starting October 31, 2010. the company wrote in a letter to the Cabinet Secretary K. M. Chandrasekhar that the ban on its services will be counterproductive and the issue can be resolved through a dialogue between industry and the authorities.

RIM vice-president Robert E. Crow wrote in a letter, “Singling out products like BlackBerry Enterprise Service in the present instance and imposing ban on such services would be futile and counterproductive.”

He further argued that the issue affects the industry as a whole and thus a joint consultative forum involving government, users and providers of encrypted services should be established to assists the government in preparing procedures and processes for across the board which will address the concerns of the enforcement agencies.

The ban on the services will not be useful as the people looking to misuse the Internet encrypted technology can simply use any other options available. The company has said that BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) uses technology similar to various other encryption products used in wireless and wired networks.