BlackBerry crash spreads worldwide

The latest disruption to the email, web browsing, and messaging services for millions of users came hours after BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) said all services were “operating normally,” and that the issues responsible for Monday’s disruption had been resolved.

Later in the day the firm issued another statement.

It read: “Some users in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, India, Brazil, Chile, and Argentina are experiencing messaging and browsing delays,” adding that it is “working to restore normal service as quickly as possible.”

RIM also apologised for “any inconvenience,” as critics vented their frustration on Twitter over an apparent delayed response to the problems.

Details about what caused the stoppage have not yet been made clear. In its statement RIM gave no further information about what caused the problems.

Europe, the Middle East and Africa are all served by a RIM data centre in Slough, leading some to believe the problem originated with server problems there, although it doesn’t explain the problems in Latin America and India.

Frustration from the Twittersphere
@LukeHeron: Blackberry Server down again. I honestly don't believe this can happen twice without foul play. In my view, RIM appears to be under attack
@NooHar: What did the Blackberry user say to the other Blackberry user? Nothing. #BBJokes
@ChrisWimpress: Don't tell my boss... but I'm quite liking this long period of my #blackberry not ruling my life.
@Snikoggs: It's very thoughtful of BlackBerry to honour Steve Jobs by having two days silence.
@smyles: "Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough" blackberry's single point of failure for europe, middle east and africa
@Campbellclaret: Amazed that Blackberry can be so good at Blackberry stuff, but so bad at crisis comms to customers #getmybloodyblackberrybackon
Add your voice @channel4news or using the hashtag #c4news

Many corporate customers said they had not lost access to the service, suggesting that the problem was with BlackBerry’s BIS consumer systems, rather than its BES enterprise systems.

Matt Brian, mobile editor of The Next Web, told Channel 4 News it appears that the problem did originate in Slough, but a lack of information from RIM has made it difficult to find out precisely how long the issues could go on for.

“RIM have been adding a lot of subscribers in the Middle East so they could be struggling to cope with demand for their encrypted emails and it might be a scaling issue, but I think the crux of the matter originated with servers in Slough,” he explained.

“Because the corporate market is so important for RIM, because it is encrypted, they wouldn’t put the same data on the same servers, they’d put them on different loops.”

Shares of RIM, which makes the BlackBerry smartphone and Playbook tablet computer, have been battered this year, reflecting a steady erosion of market share to devices made by Apple or powered by Google‘s Android software.

Stock in the company hit a 52-week low of $19.29 a share on the Nasdaq on 4 October, less than a third the C$70.54/share high it touched in February.