Saudi Arabia sets deadline for BlackBerry messenger

RIM isn’t having it too good at all in the Middle East, with UAE already banning the BlackBerry unless it complies to the country’s security and privacy laws, and now Saudi Arabia is following suit by calling on telecoms firms in the country to block the messenger function on BlackBerry handsets from Friday onwards. This ban will last until all three phone operators “fulfil the regulatory requirements it has requested”. Unfortunately for us, the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) didn’t reveal just what these requirements were. Nice to know that RIM is on the side of consumers, and will not compromise at all in their stand.