Blackberry service fails for third day running

DISRUPTION to BlackBerry services entered a third day with fed-up users reporting further problems yesterday.

BlackBerry’s maker, Research in Motion (RIM), said that service problems which started on Monday were due to a “core switch failure” within its infrastructure and assured users it was working to clear a “large backlog” of data.

But the internet was abuzz with criticism about problems with the service and RIM’s failure to explain it to users yesterday. On Twitter, 702JohnRobbie wrote: “Blackberry down again. Very poor communications from them about what the problem is. £Fail.”

Bombxleo said: “maybe i’d like my phone more if it wasn’t a stupid blackberry.”

Others resorted to humour to mock the disruption. Sickipediabot said “It was nice of Blackberry to honour Steve Jobs with two days of silence” – a reference to the recent death of the technology pioneer who founded rival firm Apple.

Problems with BlackBerry services started at around 11am on Monday. RIM initially gave the all-clear on Tuesday morning.

But RIM was forced to admit in a recorded message later in the day that it was experiencing a “service” issue which was having an impact on subscribers in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India and Latin America.