August 06, 2010

In a press statement issued earlier today the TRA informed the Lebanese public that the Authority has launched a technical, commercial and legal study covering Data services used by the smartphones in Lebanon, such as BlackBerry and others (Blackberry, Smartphones, Personal Digital Assistants, Netbooks, etc ..) in order to assess their conformity with the laws and regulations applied in Lebanon. Once the study is finalized and in case of non-compliance, the Lebanese authorities will be taking the necessary measures.

The TRA also reiterates that it hasn’t taken any decision to stop any of the Blackberry services to date. Since its inception and until today, the TRA backs-up all its recommendations and decisions by a comprehensive technical and legal study related to the subject and publishes on the website the adopted rules and regulations for the sake of transparency.

The Authority, in studying the related data services (messenger services, push-email, browsing, etc.) used over Smartphones in Lebanon, seeks to ensure consumers’ rights to state of the arts services on one hand and to ensure that consumers information remains secure on the other, while ensuring that applicable laws are in force, especially those related to ensuring the safety and security of information and communication networks.