Vodafone BlackBerry network outage hits UK, Europe, Africa
updated 09:58 am EST, Fri January 11, 2013
Issue suspected to be Vodafone-specific problem
BlackBerry users in the UK, Europe and Africa using Vodafone are suffering from server issues. Research In Motion devices in affected regions are finding that data-related services, such as BlackBerry Messenger and e-mails, are not functioning normally, but the UK carrier assures it will be rectified by network engineers in the near future.
It is not clear what exactly caused this network outage. The BlackBerry UK Twitter account mentioned "Vodafone service issues" and that it is working with Vodafone to resolve the issue. Vodafone released a statement to Reuters, stating it is working with RIM to "restore full service as soon as possible," and that more updates about the outage will be provided later.
While Vodafone itself is not admitting fault, the fact that it is affecting only regional networks owned by the carrier and not others suggests it's a network-specific issue, and unlikely to be due to RIM's actions.
Last September, Vodafone saw a widespread outage of BlackBerry service, affecting the same geographical regions for a three-hour period. Another major Vodafone network outage took place in early 2011, where UK-based BlackBerry users were left unable to access e-mail following a theft of networking equipment.
