Breaking News: BlackBerry Outage Fails Millions of users in Europe, Middle East and Africa

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

BlackBerry services for users in Africa, the Middle East and Europe have ceased since 11:00 a.m. Monday. This widespread failure is  is being blamed on a  bug on Research In Motion’s server in Slough, England  and has affected millions of users across countries, carriers ands devices. This is an unwelcome development for the already beleguered handset maker whose reputation was built on security and class-leading service. This is one reason loyal customers have remained with the smartphone maker.

No statement has been issued by RIM as of 1PM Eastern.

 “There is an issue with BlackBerry services at present,” a T-Mobile UK representative said on Twitter. “RIM [is] investigating this at present.” BlackBerry customers unable to get any answers from calling service hotlines have taken to social media services like Twitter to vent their frustration.

Helen_Serhan on Twitter said, "You're breaking my heart @BlackBerry @BlackBerryHelp." KazzKumar wondered aloud on Twitter "What the hell is wrong with my blackberry today!!!"

@paulbourke10 said "RT if your #blackberry's nearly gone through the window today."

Others, like LEIGH_ on Twitter are taking things in stride, "i have a blackberry, i have coped today and the service being down has not bothered me."

The outage could not have come at a worse time for BlackBerry as a number of competing handsets are being released this week, most notably the new Apple iPhone 4S as well as Samsung Galaxy S II X. We'll keep monitoring the situation.