| 05 Aug 2010 |
|
Motorola to offer alternative handset
- Text size
Thursday, Aug 05, 2010
Gulf News
Milestone phone also uses secure connection
Dubai A mobile phone manufacturer with offices in Dubai is bracing for the migration of BlackBerry users should an October 11 ban on BlackBerry-encrypted email and web-browsing services take effect in the UAE.
Raed Hafez, Motorola’s Product Director for International Markets based in Dubai, said his firm’s new mobile phone dubbed Milestone is equipped with encryption software to keep highly confidential business data safe from hackers.
The new phone, released in March, “has all the messaging support you need,” said Hafez in an interview yesterday with Gulf News.
MotorolaMotorola
, it would appear, has learnt a lesson from RIM which sold its BlackBerry with pre-installed Messenger services that, with the flip of a switch, enabled phone users to instantly talk, text and chat confidentially over one of the most secure telecom systems on the world. The leading-edge technology propelled RIM in its 2010 first quarter to a 24 per cent spike in revenues to $4.24 billion (Dh15 billion) over the same period last year, RIM records show.
Earlier this year, RIM said it “shipped its 100 millionth BlackBerry smartphone during the quarter.”
Electronic tunnel
has also pre-installed four configurations of what is called VPN for short — Virtual Private Network software — that creates an encrypted point-to-point electronic tunnel to send sensitive data. “VPN allows you to have a secure connection between you and your enterprise server directly,” Hafez said.
The big difference, however, is that Motorola’s encrypted VPN software opens a tunnel between user and a corporate server negating the need to export data outside of the country.
Part of the concerns held by Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) about BlackBerry Messenger is that encrypted BBM data was exported offshore and couldn’t be monitored.
“There is no reason to go offshore,” said Hafez. “Most companies have servers in this country. It [secured data] doesn’t have to go offshore to get there.”
And, unlike the BBM software which is proprietary and known only to RIM, the VPN software used by Motorola’s Milestone phone is a software known to world telcom regulators.
“It’s not an obscure interface, it’s a known interface to regulatory bodies,” he said. “It’s an approved standard and is accepted globally.”
Hafez said he didn’t know if the VPN software used by MotorolaMotorola can be monitored by TRA officials in the UAE but said, “It’s shared, everyone knows how it works.”
smart option
VPN [Virtual Private Network] allows you to have a secure connection between you and your enterprise server directly.”
Raed Hafez
Product director, Motorola
By Derek Baldwin?Business Features Reporter
© Gulf News 2010. All rights reserved.
Zawya is a distributor (and not a publisher) of content supplied by third parties and subscribers. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers, or other information or content expressed or made available by those third parties, including information providers, subscribers or other users of the Service, are those of the respective author(s) or distributor(s) and not of the Company. The Company neither endorses nor is responsible for the accuracy or reliability of any opinion, advice or statement made on the Service by anyone other than authorized Service employee spokespersons while acting in their official capacities. The Company is not responsible for any infringement of intellectual property rights or breach of any applicable law or regulation, including regulation in relation to financial services or the distribution of financial products, defamation, data protection, telecommunications (including regulations relating to excessive use, spamming or other abusive activities) or obscene, offensive or illegal content). Under no circumstances will the Company be liable for any loss or damage caused by a member's reliance on information obtained through the Service. It is the responsibility of member to evaluate the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any information, opinion, advice or other content available through the Service. Please seek the advice of professionals, as appropriate, regarding the evaluation of any specific information, opinion, advice or other content.
Read the full Member Agreement
http://www.zawya.com/legal/NewsLetter.cfm?name=disclaimer
Loading ...
Post a Comment
1.1 Contain any material which is libelous or defamatory of any person, is obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory or causes damage to the reputation of any person or organisation.
1.2 Promote sexually explicit material, violence, discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age or any illegal activity.
1.3 Be made in breach of any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence.
1.4 Be threatening, abuse or invade another's privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety.
1.5 Be used to impersonate any person, to misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person, or be likely to deceive any person.
1.6 Give the impression that they represent Zawya.
1.7 Advocate, promote or assist any unlawful act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse.