BlackBerry Crash Affects Millions Of Users
BlackBerry users across the world were left without email or text services for a second day on Tuesday.
Customers in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, Brazil, Chile and Argentina have now reported problems with their devices.
BlackBerry manufacturer Research In Motion (RIM) released a statement saying: “The messaging and browsing delays being experienced by BlackBerry users… 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 apologise for any inconvenience and we will continue to keep you informed.”
The server problems started on Monday morning.
Steve Dinneen, technology columnist with City AM newspaper, described the situation as a disaster for Blackberry.
Speaking on Jeff Randall Live, he stressed the outage had badly damaged the firm’s brand, which is already struggling.
“It couldn’t have come at a worse time for Blackberry – it’s already seen its share price fall by two thirds since the start of this year,” Mr Dinneen said.
“If ever there’s a time that people were going to jump ship from Blackberry, this is it.”
Customers have been venting their fury at the lack of service on Twitter and other social networking sites.
One tweeted: “You realise that sending a letter in a bottle and putting it in the Thames is more reliable than a BlackBerry.”
Another joked: “What did one BlackBerry user say to the other BlackBerry user? Nothing.”
RIM had given the all-clear on Tuesday morning after the first problems.
But they struck again later, leaving users unable to access emails or the internet or use messaging services.
Regular voice-calling services appear not to have been affected, and the problem seems to be limited to personal rather than business contracts.
Mobile operators in the UK including T Mobile and Orange posted messages on their websites referring customers experiencing difficulties to the manufacturer.
Vodafone said: “Research in Motion (RIM) is currently investigating the issue as a priority to restore services as soon as possible.”
TV critic Ian Hyland tweeted: “All we need now is for i-phones to start playing up and we’ll have the dream headline: ‘Apple and Blackberry Crumble.’”
