BlackBerry service provider Canada-based Research In Motion (RIM) said yesterday (October 11) that all services had been restored after a widespread glitch in its servers hit users in Europe, Middle East and Africa.

RIM did not say what caused the problem.

The glitch began disrupting services from around 12 hrs (GMT) after a service reportedly failed in one of RIM's data centres in Slough, near London.

Users were unable to browse the web, send or receive email messages across personal accounts, or use the popular BlackBerry Messenger instant messaging service. It is thought that at least 70 million subscribers around the world are BlackBerry customers, with as many as 50 per cent of that in the European region affected.

Users of all three Bahrain operators offering the service - Batelco,Viva and Zain - were affected.

"We are working together with RIM to resolve the data service disruption," said Batelco group media relations general manager Ahmed Al Janahi.

A text message from the company later apologised to customers saying the disruption was outside its control and affecting users regionally.

Zain said in a message on its Facebook page the disruption was affecting all of Bahrain. The statement said they hoped the issue would be resolved soon.

"The BlackBerry issue is a global issue for RIM and the Zain technical team is fully aware of it and working with RIM."

The company later sent out a text message to customers, appreciating their patience.

A VIVA spokesman, too, said they were aware of the problem."We apologise to customers for the disruption which is beyond our control," he said. – TradeArabia News Service