BlackBerry email down / delayed in North America (update)
By Nilay Patel 
posted December 17th 2009 12:17PM
posted December 17th 2009 12:17PM
nna be a long day for BlackBerry users: RIM's confirmed to multiple outlets that its BIS servers are acting up and that email services are being delayed -- and we're actually hearing that they're just down, period. BlackBerry Messenger still works, though, so you can still BBM your BFF or whatever the kids do nowadays. No word on service restoration, but we'll update you when we find out.P.S.- That's two months in a row with significant BIS problems -- what's up with that, RIM?
Update: ... and we're back!
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design.
@Steve Jobs
Let us cancel our data plans! Not everyone needs it! I love the AT&T network for calls, and I'm on Wi-Fi almost everywhere, so I don't need data - read: it isn't worth $30 a month to me.
@trainwrecka
comment system fail - this was suppose to be on the AT&T thread.
@Steve Jobs Did you screw over UK BBs too?
Our company had a BB outage in the UK today where the handsets went to "GSM" Battery pull sorted it out. I assume you guys have tried the "turning it off and on again" trick already.
BlackBerry is anyway mostly used by wannabes.
@Squirrel
OK
@Squirrel Its true, i wanna-be the opposite of you.
@Squirrel
Douche
I'm typing from my BB right now and I'v
@(Unverified)
haha, funny. although internet/browsing is unaffected, just email.
@iroq d mullet
But unfortunately the browser in the blackberries is lame. It's making me jealous of android's.
Yeah just noticed it didn't get more than like 2 emails this morning compared to the normal 50 or more. Hey at least outlook is working lol.
and iphones are for wannabes not blackberrys, get your info straight
@gustav213
People who wannabe able to navigate easily throuhg hundreds of messages?
People who wannabe able to use a facebook app that doesn't look like it's written for teh Commodore 64?
People who wannabe able to use multiple email accounts but not have them show up in one big giant mishmash list?
I have both phones btw. One is business, one is personal with access to business. Two years ago it was missing features, and didn't work. However today it's a very solid competitor for RIM.
Personally for this touch typist I can type faster on my iPhone than the BB. However I have over two years of experience with the iPhone KB and only just under a year of using the blackberry 8330.
As far as the AT&T vs. Verizon thing they both are full of fail for me as far as signal/reach. One works where the other doesn't, or both don't work, or whatever.
@gustav213
wannabe what? Able to use e mail?
@gustav213
Well I still say BB is the best hands down the Bold and Bold 2 are amazing and I personally hate the touch screen. Also when I drop my BB it doesn't shatter the iPhone on the other hand is done for and the screen is bye bye.
Also the email is up and running already it went out for what 2 hours in the morning, not horrible since I have never had issues before and it is still by far the best push to phone email service available.
So yeah sorry if you can use your iPhone but I cant, also I don't care about facebook since it works perfect on BB for me. And so does everything else, and I have grown up from being a little kid in high school and don't need to be playing games 24/7 on a phone.
@gustav213
Oh and one last thing I like being able to use my phone for more than an hour before I need to recharge it...
@gustav213 What i like is how all of your worthless points are made up garbage. What i like is out of the 13 smart phone users that i oversee at my work right now all of us iphone users are getting email and the owner of the company who is the only BB users is getting absolutely nothing, for the second month in a row.
Ive dropped my iphone at least 100 times and the screen is fine. When most of the employees here had BB's i replaced 6 POS plastic screens that were so scratched up they were unreadable in a 3 month period.
What i really like, is using a smartphone with an OS that isnt built like a POS dumb phone java OS. You are fanboying out hard here.
@Trekkie I usually don't waste my time with these, BUT:
People who wannabe able to navigate easily throuhg hundreds of messages?
The Storm has flick scrolling...but otherwise yeah I guess its really hard to roll your finger over a ball repeatedly.
People who wannabe able to use a facebook app that doesn't look like it's written for teh Commodore 64?
You have OS 5? The facebook app on my Storm looks great, I can't see how it's different on any other BB with 5. No idea what you're talking about.
People who wannabe able to use multiple email accounts but not have them show up in one big giant mishmash list?
Um, I have two separate tabs for two different email accounts. Each account PUSHES my emails straight to my BB in its respective tab/shortcut/whatever.
I'm beginning to think when you said you own a Blackberry, you were lying. Or maybe you have no clue how to use it.
@(Unverified)
When you grow up and work for a company with more than 13 employees, then you will understand how much better BB and WM are for business use and doing productive things rather than downloading the latest ifart app.
@gustav213
One more thing this si the first time I have ever had email problems with BB and they dont last very long at all. Also BES is by far superior to anything Apple can make, and dont call me a fanboy when your coming from Apple who no matter what will say they are better even when stats and professionals say BB is superior for the enterprise level.
I want a phone that is efficient and useful, so what if I don't have a billion apps, maybe that is why I can run a company right instead of playing with my phone.
@shwag01 Wow you are a moron. We have 500 employees here. Not everyone of them has or needs a smart phone. Maybe when you grow up and realize that you dont really know anything you will get over your self. But i highly doubt that.
@shwag01 Also since when are we measuring the size of peoples companies. You do know that some of the most successful companies in the world started out with 2-5 people and an idea. Ever heard of Microsoft? Apple? Twitter? Facebook? You sir are a total moron.
Thats why i hate this site and its dumb ass commenters. Everyone of you idiots thinks you are gods gift to the world, and you never ever think before you type. Like a bunch of misbehaving little kids.
I have an iPhone 3G and a BlackBerry 8900.
The iPhone is for fun, the BlackBerry is for business. Yes you can do /some/ things on the other, but really, you get the best experience sticking to their core competency.
Arguing whether a BlackBerry or iPhone is better is like arguing that a main course is better than dessert. In reality, you get value from both in different ways.
@gustav213 I hope when you are "running" that company that your form letters and conversation skills are much better than your complete inability to form an actual sentence.
@Trekkie
Here we ago again, as always whenever there is a story posted about iPhone or BlackBerry...All of a sudden all the trolls come out and want to have a dick swinging contest to see whose is bigger. Keep in mind, I own both a BlackBerry (9700) and an iPhone, so our knowledge on each will be a good comparison of "Apples to Berrys".
Easier navigate through thousands of messages on an iPhone compared to a BlackBerry? Take a little time to learn your BlackBerry and it's shortcuts before making such an idiotic statement.
T: Top of message list
B: Bottom
N: Next Day
P: Previous
S: Search
Spacebar: Scroll down 1 pageview at a time
Facebook, yeah, it's pretty fancy on the iPhone, however with the new version of BlackBerry, you are pretty much even on that one.
Multiple email accounts only in a "big mashable list"? Go into your messages folder, hit the menu key, go to search and set a custom search for your different email accounts and save it. Problem solved.
If you seriously want to utilize your BlackBerry for what it's worth, you need to take 10 minutes and learn about it and it's shortcuts, rather than just brushing it off as a "my company provided this to me and it's pretty cool, but check out my iPhone! I'm so cool!".
@N8D, Don't forget the U for next unread.
Can you by the way click 20 emails and mark them all read with the iPhone?
Can you set a different customizable tone for each email account without jailbreaking the iphone or installing other apps that again have to be jailbroken to run in the background?
Say you're in a mailbox and you hear the same tone, you have to hit back twice then go into the mailbox and then the folder to see your email. With the BB it's in one spot, easy to read and easy to manage.
Also by using BIS I can add many email accounts and any new email gets pushed to my phone draining no more power than one. New Gmail comes in almost instantly. The iPhone? More power drain for each account you add and to make matters worse only periodic checks for new email.
I'll admit for multimedia it's better although I'm amazed you can't edit playlists on the fly with the iPhone whereas you can with the BB. And for stupid apps to waste your time the iPhone is much better. For work, productivity, and communication the BB wins easily.
@PaulMdx
who's arguing? wrong thread, perhaps? this has nothing to do with the thread at hand.
All my emails just poured in about an hour ago so it appears to be working now, for me at least. It went down last night around 3:00 AM (not sure which timezone).
@ebloomca You don't know what timezone you live in?
@flextopia
Ha, good one. No, I'm Central. I should have been more clear so as to not becoming the butt of a joke. :) The BES admin at my company received a notice from RIM that all 3rd party email via BIS was not being delivered starting sometime around 3:00 AM, wasn't told the timezone.
People pay for this crap atop normal data charges? Why? Such fail. RIM's uptime would practically be better if they were running this on a Cox cable connection out of a garage.
@Nerdtalker No, usually a blackberry data plan is them same price as a normal data plan. It's more like a benefit than an add-on.
@Nerdtalker
Wow, between this and the bullshit you posted over at the LED traffic light article you are on a real spree of not knowing what the fuck you're talking about.
@StvDvs Hence his avatar with his head up his ass.
blackberries has some of the best reception radios as well as battery life.
crazy standby time. my storm lasted almost a month without charging on standby while i'm away on a trip.
@va jj Lucky you; my Storm lasted less than a day when it was new. My Bold however was quite nice.
@va jj
That's when the Storm works best, when on standby ; )
Exchange FTW! BIS FTL!
Balsallie had mentioned something about diverting extra R&D money for acquiring a losing hockey team. He'd said a hockey team would raise BlackBerry awareness and increase unit sales. Not sure if things are working according to plan, though.
@Average White Boy They did in the hockey world. That made a huge splash and got him a shit-ton of fans.
Correct me if I'm wrong but how does RIM have anything to do with an email outage?
Wouldn't it be the carriers problem?
@humzarizvi Blackberry Internet Service. Push email is done by Blackberry themselves when you register an email account on your device. The only time it would be a carrier issue is if you lost service entirely. The only time email is not the problem of RIM is if you're getting your email from the gmail app, the live app or something similar instead.
@humzarizvi it routes through their servers before it gets to your phone.
@humzarizvi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry#Supporting_software
Email is down in the Los Angeles area on Verizon for me.
@MRPysnik
BlackBerry e-mail has been very sporadic in Fort Wayne, IN today since shortly after 2 AM EST. It comes in big chunks, and on some phones it doesn't come at all.
So I called VZW a few minutes ago. The lady on the phone from Pennsylvania told me that yes, RIM's servers were down nationwide. And she had a BlackBerry and couldn't send/receive e-mail, too.
@MRPysnik Back up in LA - sometime just before noon PST.
I haven't received any email since 00:15 last night, Mountain time. So it's been down for 9 and a half hours for me, so far. Google had better hurry up with that Nexus One. I'm totally done with Blackberry, their crappy interface and their frequent outages. Nice hardware, but really that's all they have going for them.
@mmaestro Aaand we're back. Started getting some mail around 1, it's now 3:45 and everything I was missing just flooded in. So that's 15.5 hours. Totally unacceptable.
I have had ZERO issues... weird...