NZ firms shrug off ban threat

Two New Zealand firms doing business in Dubai are relaxed about any crackdown on BlackBerrys, one saying it did not think it would go ahead.

Keith Sumner, the managing director of corporate travel specialists Gilpin Travel, said he would be surprised if the emirate went ahead with the ban as has been reported.

"That would be draconian in a business centre like Dubai - I think it would be bizarre if they would do that. I think someone has added one and one and got three," he said.

"I would doubt it because it has such implications where they are so pro-business. They're such a multinational community up there. The devil will be in the detail and that would be worked out."

His firm is a member of the Middle Eastern Business Council and Gilpin said he has travelled to Dubai for the past 11 years.

He said it was possible that general filtering - such as that which blocked access to his TAB account on a recent trip - would be extended to BlackBerrys.

"There's a degree of censorship up there anyway but I would be very surprised if there was a general block on email. It's a modern progressive business-friendly environment."

Burger Fuel last month opened a store in Dubai and its Australasia chief executive Josef Roberts said if there was a BlackBerry ban there were alternatives.

"My view on this is that there are other networks that we can use. I don't think it's going to make any immediate difference. I guess you lose a certain amount of convenience."

Like Gilpin, he believed there was a chance the policy could be reversed.

You get these announcements up there and they do change things around so who knows."

Roberts said any ban on BlackBerrys would not affect him anyway. "I don't use a BlackBerry so that when I'm out in the field I'm not interrupted by emails."