Software update brought down BlackBerry e-mail: RIM
Last Updated: Friday, April 20, 2007 | 9:00 AM ET
CBC News
A problem with a software update caused the disruption to the BlackBerry wireless e-mail system that left millions of customers without access to their messages earlier this week, according to the device's maker, Research in Motion Ltd.
The BlackBerry messaging infrastructure failed around 8 p.m. ET Tuesday, and service didn't return to normal for all customers until Wednesday morning. The problem originated at RIM's hub for North American traffic, located in Waterloo, Ont., which routes messages to and from cellular service providers for the roughly eight million BlackBerry users.
In a statement late Thursday, RIM said the e-mail outage was triggered by "the introduction of a new, non-critical system routine" at the company's Waterloo network data centre. The update was designed to optimize the cache, or temporary holding space, of the system that handles e-mail sent to BlackBerry users.
RIM said it didn't expect the update to have an impact on users, "but the pre-testing of the system routine proved to be insufficient."
The company also said the process designed to maintain service in the event of a failure "did not fully perform" to RIM's expectations, causing a longer delay before service was restored and the backlog of messages in the system could be delivered to subscribers.
The glitch with the wireless e-mail system didn't affect cellphone service to the devices.
Previous outages
The last major outages experienced in North America both occurred in June 2006.
The first, on June 17, lasted for between two and four hours and affected customers using U.S. carriers Cingular and T-Mobile. It was attributed to a software upgrade "that did not operate consistent with prior testing," the company said at the time.
A second outage on June 22 was as a result of an unrelated "hardware failure." A RIM statement at the time said a "backup system functioned with lower capacity than expected and the lower capacity then caused latency in message delivery for some customers."
Last week the company reported that revenues in the fourth quarter jumped 66 per cent to $930.4 million US and reported earnings of $187.9 million US.
An additional 1.02 million subscribers to its BlackBerry wireless services added in the quarter puts the company's subscriber base at about eight million.
With files from the Associated PressShare Tools
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