Yesterday was a day of non property talk in the E & T camp.
Out of the blue the two local telecom operators have decided that Balckberry violates local laws and regulations and will therefore being cancelling its services as of 11th October.
In the middle of a credit crunch last month, against my better judgement,I invested 1800 dhs in a snazzy new blackberry handset. Now they tell me that half of the services will be unusable and my mantra of always insisting that I use Nokia phones is coming back to haunt me.
I was fairly well known for insisting that a phone was a phone and all these 'silly' internet services were a waste of time and money. I admit I have been converted and am feeling a bit exposed ( if not potentially naked ) that I will have to live my life without e mails dropping onto my phone whilst I eat, exercise and watch tv.How will I survive the local tv if I cannot avert my attention for most of a show to my phone. How will I sit through a business meeting if I cannot be rude and stare at my phone and send e mails to someone other than my host. How will I drive in a straight line on Shk Zayed road if I don't multi task and read my e mails.
Life is going to change 'too much' and I will be forced to either convert to Apple ( over my dead body !!) or 'Ah Yes' there is a solution. Nokia. I will buy a phone, forget data packages and start communicating with the power of speech again.
Just as an aside I have a theory that neither Etisalt or Du are as incompetent as this latest problem suggests. If the reason for cancelling the service is because the Blackberry system violates UAE law and regulations then why on earth have they been selling the service for the last few years. No, this is just a smoke screen and I beleive that the Russians are behind this. It is an extension of the 'Anna Chapman' KGB story from the USA. There has to be a good spy story to justify this decision and I truly believe that the real reason is that 'national security' has been breached.Du and Etisalat both have some way to go with their customer service skills but there is no way this violation of law wasn't spotted a long time ago. Something has been detected and fortunately we live in a society where the UAE governemnt can react quickly and not have to have diplomatic debate for months before making a decision to do the right thing.
Sounds like something out of '24' now. Well there are some shows I watch without being distracted by my Blackberry.
