BlackBerry Email Restored After 8-Hour Outage

Problem with IM software at fault, RIM urges upgrade
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Dec 23, 2009 9:15 AM CST
BlackBerry Email Restored After 8-Hour Outage
In this photo made Dec. 8, 2009, Kelly Norby searches coupontom.com on her Blackberry to find coupons for Yoplait brand yogurt at a Target store in Wheeling, Ill.   (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

BlackBerry email service in North America was restored this morning following its second outage in less than a week. Research In Motion said the root cause of the 8-hour lapse is still under review, but a flaw in two recently released versions of its BlackBerry Messenger instant messaging software appears to be the culprit. RIM has also provided a new version of BlackBerry Messenger (version 5.0.0.57) and is encouraging anyone who downloaded or upgraded the software since Dec. 14 to upgrade to this latest version, which resolves the issue.

During yesterday's outage, which started around 6:30pm, users in the Americas were unable to send or receive email. Some said they also could not connect to the Internet. RIM said message delivery was delayed or intermittent during the service interruption but said phone service and SMS service were unaffected. BlackBerry service last went out last Thursday. (More BlackBerry stories.)

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