Earlier this morning some Vodafone users in the Middle East, Europe and Africa were hit with a service outage according to reports. Users were unable to access email or data services for a few hours but it looks as if now service is slowly being restored. Vodafone had this to say:
"Vodafone is working closely with Research in Motion (RIM) to restore full service as soon as possible. As soon as we have further information we will provide additional updates"
Things should be getting back to normal now for most users in the affected areas. If you're a Vodafone user and are having trouble getting email, be sure to drop a comment letting us know!
Source: Reuters
Reader comments
Vodafone outage hits Europe, Middle East and Africa - Service now being restored
From ZDNET :
http://www.zdnet.com/vodafone-customers-hit-by-blackberry-outage-7000009...
Update at 8:45 a.m. ET: Research in Motion responded to our emails to lay the blame on Vodafone's network. In a statement, the firm said: "All BlackBerry services are operating normally but we are aware that a wider Vodafone service issue is impacting some of our BlackBerry customers in Europe, Middle East and Africa. We are supporting Vodafone’s efforts to resolve the issue as soon as possible."
In a nutshell, it's Vodafone, not RIM. We've put in additional questions to Vodafone U.K. and will update if and when we hear back.
Update at 8:55 a.m. ET: A statement from Vodafone explains that while this is not just a U.K. related issue, the network is being restored and should be up and running soon.
Vodafone can confirm that some BlackBerry customers experienced issues with their data services this morning in Europe, Middle East and Africa. The issue was caused by a router error. Services are in the process of being restored and we continue to monitor the situation closely. We apologise to customers for any inconvenience caused and we will provide updates as necessary.
I was without email and BBM for about 2/3 hours this morning in London. As disappointing as the outage was the lack of feedback and information,nothing anywhere on the web yet so easy to do Vodafone, RIM
This is the exact problem RIM has with the media. They are not proactively controlling this story in their favour. They need to be contacting every single blog and media outlet explaining that this IS NOT THEIR FAULT. Simply put, any service outage whether RIM's fault or not will always be thought of to be RIM's fault because of their history of outages. So regardless of whether people quote Vodafone's response or RIM's response, people will immediately think that it's RIM's fault, creating negative press towards them. One would think that after two years of being pounded by the media they would learn...but apparently not :(
Regardless if RIM contacts the media/bloggers or not, it's up to the media if they want to tell the truth, or outright lie to the public, or twist the story around.
The point I was making is that they report what they know, which in this case is a service outage affecting blackberry users on Vodafone. Vodafone releases a statement indicating no blame to anyone (which is fair considering the problem hadn't been resolved). At this point with the history of RIM outages the media doesn't have to show bias towards bashing RIM, their audience will automatically make that connection and assume it is RIM's fault.
Do you have any concept of how many "media" outlets that would require, and how long it would take to contact them? The first incorrect reports were probably published, repeated, and retweeted before RIM even knew Vodafone was down.
Do you have any concept of how media works? Seriously? There are perhaps 20 major blogs and news outlets that reach the majority of people interested in this sort of stuff. RIM needs to reach out to them instead of waiting for them to contact. A company the size of RIM should have no problem staffing dozens of people for this type of stuff
crozyBB : currently they do have problem staffing this type of people. They are compressing the teams and dedicate them to the launch. Anyway, it seems that current organization have perfectly handled the situation w/o extra staffing. A single clear message properly broadcasted doesn't need such resources :)
I had problems this morning but I turned on wifi connection and it was business as usual. Luckily I didnt have to leave the office this morning.
In the age of technology, there will be inconvenience to all customers at some time or another. I think most people understand this. RIM has been solid in this area and definitely no worse than others. Sometimes services have to be halted for upgrades etc. Go RIM and BB10.
I got hit by this today. Not exactly what RIM needs less than 3 weeks before the big day. I see what people mean about RIM getting a bad press as it was hard for me (a Vodafone reseller) to convince people it was a Vodafone fault not RIM's. The way Vodafone portrayed it was that it was RIM's problem which I believe wasn't the case exactly. People immediately referred to the last problem that RIM had and I had to remind people that was in 2011!!
Anyway, really can't wait for BB10 to drop. Go RIM.
Shame on vodaphone not taking responsibility for their own faults.
It's "Vodafone "
#BB10Believe
Stock is UP $13.22 ( 10.91%) as of right now, nice play to catch the shorters,lol.
Silly media shoots before getting the facts.
I lol'd
This is entirely a problem on Vodafone network. Why does the statement even mention RIM? Somethings not right...
Because most of the media incorrectly reported as a RIM outage. It wasn't, and now the corrections are getting published to point the blame where it really belonged - with Vodafone.
Vodafone owes RIM big time now. STOP selling the garbage iPhones !
Sign'O the times : This operator outage had zero effect on RIM stock (skyrocketing).
Spinning wheel: Brand image and trust recovery; hats off MM Heins and Boulben : 12 months ago it would have turned out to disaster.
Vodacom SA didn't have service for 3 or so hours yesterday.
I received the following sms from them this am:
Vodacom sincerely apologises for Friday's BlackBerry fault which affected Europe, the Middle East & Africa. A full investigation is underway.
Same here in România (for those who don't know were it is, well, it's in Europe). BBM, App world and Web browsing was down for about 3 toate 4 hours.