Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2013/01/11/rim_outage/

Vodafone goes titsup for BlackBerrys in mobile data outage

Yet another reason to down tools and head to the pub on Friday afternoon

By Bill Ray

Posted in Networks, 11th January 2013 14:06 GMT

BlackBerry users on Vodafone have had another long day, or perhaps a relaxing one, as data services for many users dropped out this morning and are still on the fritz.

The outage was caused by a router failure, and hit BlackBerry users on Vodafone's network across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Services are now being slowly restored to all customers who may find their Friday afternoon busier than they had hoped.

Vodafone hasn't said if the problem affected all users in those regions, but judging from the weight of the El Reg mailbox at the moment not all folks were cut off - unless our readers have been deserting RIM's smartphone platform even faster than previously imagined.

The outage may have been limited, and is now being fixed, but the timing is particularly poor given RIM is about to take the wraps off its BlackBerry 10 devices on which the future of the company depends. It does not help much that the fault was with Vodafone's equipment; RIM will still be the one copping the blame. ®