RIM: System upgrade caused Blackberry blackout
Agence France-Presse
First Posted 07:58:00 02/13/2008
Filed Under: Infotech, mobile phones
OTTAWA -- A disruption of BlackBerry cellphones in North America for several hours Monday was caused by the failure of one of its recently upgraded systems, Research in Motion said Tuesday.
The Canadian maker of the hugely popular mobile devices that combine telephone, email and Internet capabilities said its preliminary analysis "points to a problem with an internal data routing system within the BlackBerry service infrastructure that had been recently upgraded."
The upgrade was part of RIM's routine and ongoing efforts to increase overall capacity to meet long-term growth in demand, the company said in a statement, noting similar upgrades in the past were problem-free.
"RIM apologizes to its customers for any inconvenience," the company said, adding that no messages were lost during the outage and the system was back up and running normally Monday evening.
Disruption of BlackBerry service is a major bane for business and government employees who rely on the devices to get work done while on the move.
Reliance on BlackBerry "smart phones" is so fierce that they have been jokingly dubbed "CrackBerries" in a reference to a tendency for their owners to compulsively check email as if it were an addiction.
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