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"The UAE is certainly no stranger to blocking mobile services, as RIM will probably attest to.\r\n\r\nThe company has had to deal not only with monitoring issues, but also with a ban on Blackberry services in the UAE, a decision which has since been overturned. In fact, Blackberry services has been embraced by the authorities, and are even used in an official capacity, albeit in a limited manner, by the Dubai police.\r\n\r\nThe UAE is now turning its attention to Apple's iMessage service as well as Facetime, with Mobile carriers Etisalat, followed by Du, suspending the Apple services.\r\n\r\nEtisalat made an announcement via twitter, claiming that\u00A0Facetime had been disabled by Apple, but that iMessage is &amp;quot;under investigation&amp;quot; by the\u00A0UAE's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA).\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nWhile Etisalat gave no time frame on the investigation, mobile carrier Du tweeted\u00A0that the service would resume this evening.\r\n\r\nThe TRA told UAE based publication, The National, a slightly different story, stating that there was &amp;quot;no\u00A0intention to block iMessage,&amp;quot; adding that he was checking with telecom operators on why Apple services have been blocked.\r\n\r\nDubai-based journalist Tom Gara tweeted that the ban was affecting far more than just iMessage, saying\u00A0that all Apple push notifications had been suspended.\r\n\r\nThe National also reported that while the ban is in effect, some users have been able to successfully use Apple's iMessage service.\r\n\r\nUpdate: Etisalat has sent out a similar Tweet as Du, stating that iMessage service will resume tonight, with some tweets stating that the service has already been restored on Du."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/me/2011/11/13/apples-imessage-and-facetime-blocked-in-the-uae/>