BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – A number of persons have been making queries about their BlackBerry service as they have been experiencing difficulty over the past few days and the service appeared to be worse this morning. As a result, persons began blaming their local service providers.
However, SKNVibes, after conducting some investigations, has found out that the problem goes beyond the local telecommunication companies in the Federation.
Problems have been reported by BlackBerry users in other parts of the world and as it turns out, the BlackBerry manufacturer Research In Motion (RIM) has experienced a blackout.
A story coming out of the UK titled ‘BlackBerry blackout leaves users cut off for hours in dozens of countries’ reported that BlackBerry users in the UK were unable to use their phones due to a blackout said to be caused by a crashed server at a data centre in Slough.
As a result users in Europe, the Middle East and Africa were unable to access the messenger service as well as the internet from about 11:00 a.m.
Another article has indicated similar problems of disruption in Canada and Latin America. RIM stated via Twitter that they were aware of some of the complaints with the service and that support teams were investigating.
According to a report, BlackBerry has 70 million subscribers worldwide, and Internet Service is available in 91 countries on over 500 mobile service operators.
The “crackberry” as many people call it because of people’s addiction to the messenger services, has become more popular in the Federation over the past two years even though BlackBerry was introduced since 1999.
The interruption in the service has caused many people to be outraged, many of whom have voiced their concerns online. Telecom companies around the world, including our local Digicel and LIME companies, have also been apologising to their customers.
