RIM works to fix the glitch as BlackBerry outage continues for the third day

By Kul Bhushan | Updated on 13-Oct-2011

13-Oct-2011

Millions of BlackBerry users around the world including India bear the brunt of what Research in Motion describes as “switching failure in its private network”. Users reportedly suffered patchy email, browsing and messaging services for a third day on Wednesday. However, RIM says it is continuously working to fix the glitch. The company also points out that its service levels are improving in the US, Canada, and Latin America but acknowledges many users are still suffering from the service collapse.

In a letter to customers, RIM’s chief information officer Robin Bienfait gives an update about its services in India and other regions:

“Email systems are operating and we are continuing to clear any backlogged messages. Support teams are working to minimize the impact on our customers.

BBM traffic is online and traffic is passing successfully

Browsing is temporarily unavailable as the Support teams monitor service stability and continue to assess when this service can be safely brought online

Support teams have added capacity to help with message delivery between regions and continents”

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The interruptions began on Monday and initially affected BlackBerry users in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. By Tuesday, the problem spread to Brazil, India, Chile and Argentina. RIM also acknowledged that BlackBerry users in India, the Middle East, Africa, Brazil and Argentina were still experiencing messaging and browsing delays due to a “switch failure” in its services.

According to analysts, RIM’s BlackBerry outages have come at the worst possible time. The company is rapidly losing ground against rivals like Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android. Following the PlayBook debacle, RIM continues to face a tough time.

The instant messaging and e-mail services are the main reasons for the popularity of the BlackBerry devices and that RIM has been associated with security, messaging and enterprise-level service. An infrastructure glitch at this point certainly does not look good.

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