Mystery Blackberry fault hits again

BlackBerry users across Europe, the Middle East and Africa were hit with service disruptions to their smartphones for a second day after an unexplained glitch cut off internet and messaging services.

Makers Research in Motion admitted there were continuing problems hours after it said services were operating normally and the issue responsible for delays in subscriber services a day earlier had been resolved.

“Some areas have messaging delays and impaired browsing,” BlackBerry said, adding it was working to “restore normal service as quickly as possible.”

In Britain, Vodafone UK told customers service was not fully restored. Rival T-Mobile UK blamed “a European-wide outage on the BlackBerry network” which it said was affecting all mobile operators. There were also reports of problems elsewhere in Europe, such as Spain.

The disruptions were also felt in the Middle East and Africa.

Etisalat, which operates in the United Arab Emirates, apologised for “the further interruption” to Blackberry services, “once again due to RIM problems.”

And Kenya’s Safaricom said its customers were experiencing a “technical fault,” while South Africa’s Vodacom told subscribers the issues were affecting multiple networks and countries.

Angry smartphone users used Twitter to vent frustration with the company and complain over the loss of their messaging capabilities, questioning why the company took so long to restore services.