BlackBerry woes persist as engineers work to fix problem

12 Oct 2011

The BlackBerry Curve

The disruption to BlackBerry services continues as users struggle to access internet and email. RIM’s UK managing director says engineers are working to fix the problem while Vodafone confirmed subscribers may be experiencing ongoing issues.

The problem began on Monday due to a server fault at a data centre in Slough, in the UK. Services began being restored between 10pm and 12am.

However, the problem has persisted, with some BlackBerry users entering their third day without full services.

BlackBerry serves 70m people worldwide and the problems have so far affected users in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and those in some countries in South America.

The problem is understood to be caused by a failure within Research in Motion’s own infrastructure. A transition to a back-up switch did not go according to plan, causing a large backlog of data.

According to the Guardian’s Charles Arthur, Research In Motion managing director Simon Bates told this morning’s BlackBerry Innovation Forum in London that engineers were working around the clock to fix the problem and apologised to all customers.

This afternoon, Vodafone issued the following statement: “BlackBerry subscribers may be experiencing ongoing issues with BlackBerry services in Ireland and other countries. Research in Motion (RIM) has identified the issue, is clearing the backlog of data and is working to restore services as quickly as possible.”

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com