11 October,2011 08:32 AM IST | | Agencies
A UK data server failure has sent BlackBerry devices offline in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, affecting millions of users.
The glitch, which is believed to have happened on Monday, is being blamed on a server fault at BlackBerry manufacturer Research in Motion (RIM).
The fault is affecting e-mail, messaging services and web browsing on the smartphones.
The affected users are served by Canadian company RIM's data centre in Slough.
Thousands of agitated users have taken to Twitter to express their anger at the outage.
'RIM's BlackBerry services have completely collapsed. My, my. Just when you thought they couldn't get any worse,' jeeveswilliams wrote.
User Boyd_Roberts wrote: 'Blackberry Services collapse worldwide... time to get an iPhone me thinks.'
A spokesperson from BlackBerry said, "We are working to resolve an issue currently impacting some BlackBerry subscribers in Europe, Middle East and Africa."
The BBM messaging service, which enables BlackBerry users to send messages to each other for free, is very popular, and a major reason many younger users own the smartphone.
Currently, many users are reporting that they can only send text messages on their device, which comes at a cost.
BlackBerry has apologised for the problems and promised to fix the issue.
1999
The year in which RIM launched its BlackBerry line
