Millions of BlackBerry smartphone users have been cut off from using the Internet Servers because of what sounds like a major fault at RIM, the Canadian company that makes the Blackberry devices.
The glitch, which struck at around 4:30 PM India Time, was affecting online services for consumers over Europe, Asia and Africa. All are served by a RIM data centre in Slough. They have been unable to browse the web or use BBM, or access other internet services such as email.
A RIM spokesman was not immediately available for comment. Users who are served by a corporate server appeared to be unaffected.
On one of its official Twitter feeds, however, T-Mobile UK said: “There is an issue with Blackberry services at present. RIM are investigating this at present.”
Batelco, a mobile operator in Bahrain meanwhile said: “Please note the issue with BlackBerry service is effecting all of Bahrain, and it is dealt with by BlackBerry providers in Canada.”
Vodafone Egypt told its Twitter followers that “there is Blackberry outage, it’s from RIM side.”
Many BlackBerry users were particularly annoyed at being cut off from BBM, RIM’s free instant messaging service. It is a major selling point for its smartphones and makes them popular among teenagers, who are able to save on text messaging costs.
The outage will pile further problems on RIM. It is under increasing pressure from more recent entrants to the smartphone market such as Apple and Google.
Recently, a news leaked of Vodafone planning to take over Blackberry
Lets see what is the faith of Blackberry after this outage.
Some users on Twitter, Facebook are going crazy over the outage
Reported on 10th October 2011
UPDATE: The service resumes after 20 hours
people are going crazy with the broadcast storm gripping Blackberry with the fake broadcast to re-broadcast a message to no lose the BBM Contacts
UPDATE 2: Blackberry servers go down again
Users have once again taken to Twitter to vent their frustration, with many pledging to switch to an iPhone or Android device.
UPDATE 3: Day 3 and Blackberry servers go down Worldwide
BlackBerry messaging and internet services have come to a standstill once again, this time it’s worldwide
Here is the Official Statement
The messaging and browsing delays that some of you are still experiencing were caused by a core switch failure within RIM’s infrastructure. Although the system is designed to failover to a back-up switch, the failover did not function as previously tested. As a result, a large backlog of data was generated and we are now working to clear that backlog and restore normal service as quickly as possible. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused to many of you and we will continue to keep you informed.