BlackBerry outages spread further as RIM works on the problem

RIM Software CTO clarified that their services had not been hacked. PHOTO: FILE/AFP

OTTAWA, CANADA: BlackBerry on Wednesday revealed that the failure of a core switch in one of their European facilities had caused a backlog of messages that had spread to affect some BlackBerry services globally.

BlackBerry (BB) held a quick conference call press conference in which CTO software, David Yach made plain that the BlackBerry network had not been hacked or breach, but the problem had been sourced to a backup switch failure in their European unit.

He placated fears of dropped messages saying that the company had to throttle services globally at the moment, however all messages will be delivered with no loss.

BlackBerry, which is owned and operated by the Canada based Research In Motion (RIM) started facing a suspension in services such as its signature encrypted service BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) on Monday. BBM which connects members regardless of their geographical location or individual network selections, while passing messages over an encrypted server out of the prying eyes of governments, making it a top choice for high powered executives and even those heading government departments over six continents.

Along with the suspension of the BBM, users also experienced between a partial and full email suspension, another feature that has made BB smartphones popular. Some even experienced down time in their browsing.

Some reports attributed the crash to BB rolling out new updates, however the press conference quashed those limiting the options to a core switch failure which switches data over to backup systems in case of a breakdown. Those systems – believed to be based on Slough, England (RIM did not specify which European unit suffered the breakdown) were the ones to have been the cause behind the meltdown that has caused a large backlog of data to be generated and quickly rapidly spread around the world.

RIM, which has already witnessed its fortunes dwindle over recent months with strong competition coming from the likes of the Apple’s iPhone range and a host of Android based smartphones from HTC and Samsung.