Blackberry service ruptured by core switch failure

The disruption in BlackBerry services in India and several other countries since Monday was caused by a core switch failure, makers of the device Research in Motion (RIM) said today.

"The messaging and browsing delays being experienced by BlackBerry users in Europe, West Asia, Africa, India, Brazil, Chile and Argentina were caused by a core switch failure within RIM's infrastructure," the Canada-based firm said in a statement.

BlackBerry users have been hit by service disruptions to their smartphones since Monday after a glitch cut off Internet and messaging services for a large numbers of users around the world.

"Although the system is designed to failover to a back-up switch, the failover did not function as previously tested. As a result, a large backlog of data was generated and we are now working to clear that backlog and restore normal service as quickly as possible," RIM said.

Stating that it is working to restore normal service as quickly as possible, the company apologised for the inconvenience to its customers.

RIM, which makes the smartphone, announced on Monday that it had fixed the problem after users across the globe reported not being able to receive or send email, use instant messaging or browse the internet, though the problems did not appear to be the same for each user, or affect all users.

The problem reappeared yesterday.