A potential ban on BlackBerry will spell trouble for recruiters if such a ban were to eventually include other forms of mobile communication, according to Laurel Wise, managing consultant at HR Digby Morgan’s Dubai operation.

Governments in the Middle East have raised concerns over the ability of security forces to intercept email sent via BlackBerrys, which they say could pose a potential security risk if they are unable to access correspondence from suspected terrorist organisations.

A spokesperson for the Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRA) of the UAE told news website Emirates 24|7 that TRA’s position is that BlackBerry services would be stopped from 11 October 11 as earlier announced, though negotiations are ongoing.

Meanwhile India has withdrawn its threat of a ban on BlackBerry devices for another 60 days after RIM, the Canadian firm that make BlackBerrys, agreed to give authorities ’lawful access’ to encrypted data carried on its servers.

Wise told Recruiter: “We don’t use BlackBerrys. We have remote access and I have an iPhone. We don’t give them to our consultants. It could be completely detrimental for some our HR clients.

“For certain people, it will make it hard to do business. People might have to start thinking out of the box. The problem will be if they ban BlackBerrys, it may be a short time before they ban other phone platforms such as iPhone access.”

Chris Greaves, managing director of Hays in India, adds: “While we are monitoring the situation, we aren’t overly concerned. If the BlackBerry ban is enforced then we will switch to a different package and because our clients and candidates will all be in the same boat we don’t foresee that it will have any impact on our ability to communicate effectively with them.”