How many people do you know that own, and rely on, that handy little device we call the “BlackBerry?” If you are like the Gorilla, you probably know plenty of them. Many people consider this clever device their lifeblood and simply can’t live without it. Well, BlackBerry users everywhere experienced a bit of a ”Blackout” yesterday, as service was down for a couple of hours. RIM’S network has about 12 million subscribers and you know as well as the Gorilla, a couple of hours in a blackberry user’s life seems like much longer to them than to the rest of the world! There were probably some really ticked off subscribers!
The disruption affected most email capabilities and some Internet capabilities to many BlackBerry users. Research in Motion said in a statement yesterday, that subscribers “may be unable to send or receive messages” and may also be unable to “register their device, roam in another location, or use other services such as Internet browsing.” The company also said that voice and SMS services were not affected.
Okay, so it wasn’t a total loss for the two hours! The service disruption started at 3:10 PM ET, and was caused by a downed server, affecting subscribers in North America. It wasn’t the first time this has happened with the BlackBerry service and perhaps it won’t be the last. (A scary thought to you BlackBerry users!) The same kind of server problem occurred in April and September of 2007. Ouch! Hey, the Gorilla has a question; ”Is two hours long enough to start having ‘BlackBerry’ withdrawals?”