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The Waterloo, Ontario-based company has been under continuous pressure since last summer to deliver access to its messaging services, which India says is essential to national security.

"It's not a question of their giving access. Under law, they have to give access, everybody has to give access," said Gopal Pillai, India's Home Secretary, in response to a question about whether RIM had complied with regulatory demands. "Whoever gives access will be allowed to operate. Whoever does not give access will not be allowed to operate."

Last week, Indian officials said that the access policy would apply to all encrypted communications services, which seemed to take the heat off RIM. However, today's comment suggest that even though RIM isn't being singled out, it could still face a ban on its corporate email service if it doesn't provide access to authorities, a task the company maintains is technically impossible.

RIM already allows Indian authorities to monitor its consumer-focused BlackBerry Messenger service, but has staunchly maintained that the nature of the strong encryption used to secure its BlackBerry Enterprise Server corporate communication service makes it impossible allow monitoring by any third party. It's precisely that security that has made the service a favorite of business users.

The BlackBerry maker has faced bans in both Saudi Arabia and the UAE, but has managed to resolve those conflicts under undisclosed terms. Indonesia recently ordered the company to block access to pornography, which it claims to have done.

RIM isn't the only company under pressure. Nokia revealed in December that it has set up servers in India that allow authorities to monitor its enterprise email service. Officials have also mentioned that Google's Gmail and Skype might need to enable monitoring, but the companies have reportedly not been contacted through formal channels.

Companies eager to expand into developing nations are sometimes finding themselves in conflict with more authoritarian governments. They will have to balance the profit of tapping those growth markets with the costs, both financial and in terms of user trust, of making concessions.