Vodafone Essar has been badly hit by the ongoing BlackBerry services glitch, with widespread disruption of services.

 

 

 

The Vodafone network has been affected since 4 am on October 11. Though it was restored briefly, services were disrupted again, and Vodafone BlackBerry subscribers are still facing some issues. According to sources, Vodafone is the most affected network for BlackBerry services. Airtel and Loop Mobile BlackBerry customers have also been affected.

 

 

 

 

According to an statement released by RIM India, Some users in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, India, Brazil, Chile, and Argentina are experiencing messaging and browsing delays.  We are working to restore normal service as quickly as possible.  We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.”

 

 

 

A RIM spokesperson stated that the BlackBerry services in India have been restored, although some users are still reporting glitches in services.

 

 

 

The trouble started on October 10, around 11 am GMT, with BlackBerry customers across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, being affected by a technical glitch that hit the RIM datacenter in Slough, UK. While the main BlackBerry services hit have been internet services, including the popular BBM, BES users globally were unaffected. However, in India, Vodafone’s BlackBerry internet and enterprise services were hit.  

 

 

 

Vodafone has claimed that this is an issue from RIM’s end. The Vodafone spokesperson was not available for comment.

 

 

 

RIM says that users in Brazil, Chile, and Argentina are also likely to be affected. However, other RIM servers have not been affected by this glitch.

 

 

 

This is the second day of such technical glitches reported by RIM. RIM has been facing major issues in India relating to lack of provisioning for data encryption for its BBM and BES services, which relate to national security. The BlackBerry maker has been given time till early next year to sort out this issue and provide security encryption codes.

 

 

 

BlackBerry recently launched 5 new smartphones, with a lowered price, and also slashed the price of its PlayBook in India. RIM is taking urgent measures to revive its steadily falling marketshare globally. BlackBerry revenues dipped 10 percent in Q2 2011, reporting revenues of $4.2 billion, from $4.6 billion in the same quarter last year.

 

 

 

Since the past two days, non-BlackBerry Vodafone subscribers have also been facing network disruptions, and frequent call drops on the network.

By Beryl M
[email protected]