According to a report in the Toronto Star newspaper, one carrier, Rogers, indicated that the outage didn't affect corporate customers who use a BlackBerry Enterprise Service. Instead, the problem affected consumers who use RIM's BlackBerry Internet Service. The consumer market is the fastest-growing segment of the smartphone market and being targeted aggressively by RIM and arch-rival Apple Inc. (AAPL) with its iPhone.
Several U.S. carriers confirmed that their consumer customers were affected by the outage. Crystal Davis, spokeswoman for Sprint Nextel Corp. (S), said the outage started at 3 a.m. EST and only impacted email service to its BIS subscribers. She said RIM indicated the problem began when something went awry during a maintenance check of its system. She couldn't elaborate. She said RIM indicated it expected the issue to be resolved by 12 p.m. EST, but said the timing needed to be confirmed with RIM.
Officials from RIM weren't immediately available for comment.
Spokespeople for AT&T Inc. (T) and Verizon Wireless (VZ) also confirmed their networks were affected. "Due to the RIM BlackBerry Internet Service outage currently affecting all carriers, some of our customers using BlackBerry devices may be experiencing service issues, and we are currently working with RIM to resolve the issue for customers," AT&T spokesman, John Kampfe, told Dow Jones.