The Communication and Information Technology Commission (CITC) confirmed in a statement that it had changed its mind over the controversial service, which was supposed to have stopped working on Monday night.

CITC had ordered mobile operators to block key BlackBerry services or face a reported $1.3 million (SR4.9 million) fine on Friday, following similar moves by other Arab nations.

The three main mobile operators in the Kingdom include Saudi Telecom Company (STC), Mobily and Zain Saudi Arabia.

After days of negotiations and testing of possible solutions, CITC said it decided to allow the continuation of BBM.

However, the regulator requested on Tuesday that the three operators work with their respective service providers to fulfill its regulatory requirements for the device, which is made by Canadian company Research in Motion (RIM). Last week, the regulator said it decided to take action as it claimed existing BlackBerry services provided by the three operators did not match regulatory criteria and licensing conditions.

Taking advantage of CITC’s U-turn, Zain said on Tuesday that it would provide unlimited data to BlackBerry users who sign up to the network.

Saad Al-Barrak, Zain’s chief executive officer, described the decision by CITC as a positive development.

Zain and Mobily will both offer enhanced BlackBerry services to new and existing subscribers for SR99 a month, while STC is also offering a similar suite of services for around the same amount.

The BlackBerry handset is used as a mobile device, Internet browser, and organizer.

Outside the Arab world, India was mulling a possible ban of BBM. Indonesia had also reportedly not ruled out a boycott, although on Thursday the country denied it was considering suspending BlackBerry services.

India plans to set a deadline later this week for operators to allow security agencies access to encrypted BlackBerry messages or else face disconnection of the disputed services, the Hindustan Times quoted a Home Ministry official on Tuesday.