RIM Apologises To Blackberry Users

For the second day Blackberry users around the world were cut off from internet services on Tuesday, reports Cape Times.

Internet services crashed at about noon on Tuesday, with no explanation from developer Research in Motion (RIM) about what had happened or how long services would be down.

Users from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East were affected.

Asked about Tuesday’s crash, RIM said: “Some users in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, India, Brazil, Chile, and Argentina are experiencing messaging and browsing delays. We are working to restore normal service as quickly as possible. We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused.”

On Monday, Blackberry users experienced an outage. The service was restored for several hours on Monday, but faltered again on Tuesday.

Users vented their frustration on social media sites. One said: “Okay, this Blackberry thing is ridiculous now. And if I see one more tweet from a smug iPhone user…”

Others sought solace in humour.

“It’s thoughtful of Blackberry to honour Steve Jobs by having two days of silence,” said one tweet.

Another joked: “What did one Blackberry user say to another Blackberry user? Nothing!”

“Flight attendant just said to switch all our phones off, this includes all Blackberries … everyone chimes ‘Don’t worry, they keep themselves off’,” said another.

Tools including the internet, e-mail, Twitter, Blackberry Messenger and Facebook, were unable to send or receive data.

“We are pleased to report that Blackberry services have now been restored. We apologise to our customers for any inconvenience caused,” read a post on Blackberry South Africa’s Facebook page.

By late Tuesday, about 1039 irate users had commented. Several demanded to know how they would be compensated by Blackberry.

This is the official statement from RIM:

“The messaging and browsing delays being experienced by Blackberry users in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, Brazil, Chile and Argentina were caused by a core switch failure within RIM’s infrastructure. Although the system is designed to fall over to a back-up switch, the fall over 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.”