[DXBLouie]

i really hope this is just a mistake but a after being launched and working in Europe and the middle east for a few months already, i noticed today that Blackberry Protect is no longer available in 3 countries: South Korea, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates.

Now before anyone jumps to conclusions, let me clarify that South Korea is the "good one".. North Korea is the the trouble-maker

then again the United Arab Emirates (commonly recognized by one of its main cities, Dubai) is completely neutral.. so this makes absolutely no sense if anyone speculates the app was blocked in terrorist states (which none of the 3 is one)

BlackBerry App World - BlackBerry Protect

an interesting fact though, is the Protect service itself is still available and fully functional for those who already installed it.
i just tested it myself, i restarted the service and performed a full backup, then logged on to protect.blackberry.com and was able to track my device and check its backup status

[Branta]

The obvious question... Is this a limitation imposed by RIM or by the networks? Are there any clues for this?

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[DXBLouie]

hard to say..
the carriers in the UAE are talented enough that if they don't like something, they simply block it.
Bolt browser for instance.. is blocked, because rendering is done on bolt servers effectively circumventing the censorship imposed by the web proxies.

i'd think if the local providers had a problem with blackberry protect, they would have blocked access to protect.blackberry.com which is much simpler than asking RIM to remove the UAE from the supported countries list.

[ameerali19]

correct... i try to install , but i couldnt...


i m getting an error while opening facebook
you are currently on a service plan that does not support this application.If you want to use this application,please contact your service provider to upgrade to your plan
is there any way to access facebook application(not through browser)with wifi..

i have a high speed wifi connection

pls help me

thanks in advance

[DXBLouie]

so i contacted RIM asking whether Blackberry Protect support for the UAE was removed by mistake, by request of the service provider, or for another reason..

and following is the ridiculous response i received:

Hello louie,

Thank you for contacting BlackBerry Customer Support. I tried to find out why BlackBerry Protect is not available in the United Arab Emirates, and the only information I can provide is the information that you provided to me, that the application is not available at this time.

Below is the link to the BlackBerry Protect application, and shows the non-supported regions are: Indonesia, South Korea and the
United Arab Emirates.

Free BlackBerry Protect - Download BlackBerry Protect - Free Apps from BlackBerry App World

I apologize for not being able to provide more information.

what the ****!?!!

[T�nis]

Pretty ridiculous. Cs can say it's not available, but it can't say why?

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[DXBLouie]

exactly.. i sent them a reply.. let's see :\
funny thing is.. if you download it (using a proxy/vpn) and install it.. it works just fine, so i'm not upset about the application not working for me, just this whole seemingly arbitrary exclusion for support!

[DXBLouie]

so a month later, i'm still to hear anything back, so i sent a follow up reply email (which worked before) maintaining the incident number, etc as is.. and i got an automated reply with the following:

Thank you for contacting BlackBerry Technical Support. The email you submitted has not been delivered. Please find many alternative support options below.

so yeah.. it seems the bastards closed the case without bothering to reply

[T�nis]

Shouldn't the CS/tech support rep be able to find out??? Or just say, "I don't know" and okay, she's done her job ...

[johnenglish]

Shouldn't the CS/tech support rep be able to find out??? Or just say, "I don't know" and okay, she's done her job ...

Nope, I worked in CS/Support for a little while and sometimes the only answer you'll get from management or higher ups is "not available" or "not supported" if you ask why you're just told to refer to the company documentation.

These are entry level support workers, they're job is not to question management decisions, just to pass along the information they're given and to answer the questions given the informtaion they're provided.

Considering that South Korea, Indonesia, and UAE are all subject to filtered and censored internet I'm guessing this is a country level decision and not a RIM decision. I'd take this up with your carrier and appropriate government agencies to find out why it was blocked.

I assume it has to do with the ability to (A) remotly locate your device using GPS, and (B) lock and or wipe the device remotely.

[DXBLouie]

Thanks for the response John,

however as stated earlier, if the issue was censorship related, this would have been blocked in places like Saudi and Oman (who by the way, banned the use of VPN for individuals.)

when the local government or operators want a service blocked, they block it themselves!
they can easily block access to protect.blackberry.com and be done with it.

plus i've contacted both operators in the region, neither of them claimed to know ANYTHING about the subject, so if anyone has the facts, it would be RIM

[DXBLouie]

bump........

[rkopsie]

It has go be the country and carriers, not rim related.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[DXBLouie]

rkopsie: this may have been true but the telecom regulator here claims no knowledge as to why it's blocked.. both mobile operators have no idea.. and RIM claims they don't know either.

now what i don't get is this: regardless who the heck wants it blocked.. ONLY RIM has the ability to get on app world and exclude a country or a carrier from their coverage, so clearly they HAVE to know the reason.. but i've sent countless emails and got nowhere (as you can see above)

[Bearcatrp]

I remember reading an article about this earlier this year. Curtain countries told rim to give them access so they can monitor their people or would stop rim from operating in there country. Do a search and you should find the article. Pretty sure UAE was on that list.

[shefiu]

India is also one of the countries that wanted to gain access to the information and is at present threatening once again to discontinue Blackberry Services. Yet they are not on the list of countries not supported. As of today, the BB Protect page says South Korea and U.A.E. are the only two countries not supported... weird...

[DXBLouie]

yeah, at first it was available worldwide, then they blocked indonesia, south korea and the UAE.. now Indonesia is ok..

again.. nobody knows why