BlackBerry service hit for second day

2011-10-11 15:55

London - BlackBerry users across Europe, the Middle East and Africa were hit with service disruptions to their smartphones for a second day after an unexplained glitch cut off internet and messaging services for large numbers of users around the world.

Research in Motion, which makes BlackBerry devices, said on Tuesday morning that services were operating normally and the issue responsible for delays in subscriber services a day earlier had been resolved.

Blackberry's popular messaging service was not fully operational in Europe, with users reporting issues sending and receiving messages.

In Britain, Vodafone UK told customers via Twitter that service was not fully restored. T-Mobile UK blamed "a European-wide outage on the BlackBerry network" which it said was affecting all mobile operators.

Etisalat, in the United Arab Emirates, apologised for "the further interruption" to Blackberry services, "once again due to RIM problems".

Kenya's Safaricom said on Twitter that its Blackberry customers were experiencing a "technical fault" and apologised for any inconvenience.

Angry smartphone users also used Twitter to vent frustration with the company and bemoan the loss of their messaging capabilities, questioning why the company took so long to restore services.

A spokesperson for BlackBerry said she was not immediately able to comment.

- AP