Vodacom BlackBerry down, again

Numerous Vodacom BlackBerry subscribers are complaining about BlackBerry Internet Service downtime

Staff Writer

January 11, 2013

Vodacom’s BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) has been experiencing downtime since Friday morning (11 January 2013). Initial indications are that a network fault between Vodafone and Research in Motion in Europe is to blame for the outage.

Numerous Vodacom BIS subscribers across the country have been complaining that their BlackBerry service has been down since Friday morning.

Complaints are rolling in on social media channels from BlackBerry users in Gauteng, Kwazulu-Natal, the Western Cape and North West province.

“Blackberry down AGAIN, annoying,” said one Twitter user. ”BB not working, don’t know if it’s a problem with the device or with Vodacom,” said another.

Vodacom said on Twitter that they are aware of a BlackBerry connectivity issue in Europe that is affecting services in South Africa. ”Engineers are on it. Apologies to all affected,” Vodacom said.

“We are 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 further updates,” said Vodacom spokesperson Richard Boorman.

Research in Motion (RIM), the BlackBerry parent company, said that Vodafone service issues are impacting some BlackBerry customers in Europe, Middle East & Africa. “We are supporting their efforts to resolve,” said RIM.