BlackBerry Outages Continue, Reports Say They've Spread To North America

[dixiegrrrrl]

Maybe someone who is cell phone literate can explain this for me ( I do not use cell phones).
What is a "core switch"? I had no idea that the entire planet's use of one cell device depended on ONE
switch, or whatever.
Anyhow, here is the story, below, short and sweet:

"The focus remains on "Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India," where millions of BlackBerry users are without text services for a third straight day, Reuters reports, but there's word now that the problems are also affecting folks in North America.
Research In Motion, BlackBerry's manufacturer, says a "core switch failure" caused the problems outside the Americas and that it's working on the problem."

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/10/12/141263083/blackberry-outages-continue-reports-say-theyve-spread-to-north-america?ps=cprs

and from another source of the same story:
"It was the third day of problems for Research In Motion (TSX:RIM) as it struggled to repair what it says was a failure within the company's own infrastructure, but the problems have spread even further."

http://www.cp24.com/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20111012/111012_blackberry_service/20111012/?hub=CP24Home

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. I am betting on a worm or virus

And yes the network has switches and systems. Some are very peripheral, like your wireless modem. It fails no problem...some are very much mission critical...as in close to the heart. They fail and you see blackouts.

[snooper2]

2. Here, read this product description for an example

http://www.huawei.com/en/products/core-network/singlecore/ims-core/index.htm


Otherwise I would have to write a book for you...

Or you could come to Plano TX, I can walk you through the lab and we can have a couple whiteboard sesssions :)

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. Well, that beats "buy you a drink?" by a southern mile.

:rofl:

[snooper2]

5. Makes for a great first date

:)

[Zorra]

8. good one!

[Mojambo]

3. Steve Jobs has gotten around to haunting, I see. n/t

[HipChick]

6. No Failover scenario's?

interesting..

[snooper2]

10. You better believe they have failover scenarios...but sometimes those fail

and you reach critical mass...yes, it sucks..and it can happen on any network platform.

Example, I was at WorldCom working for a couple days straight in the NOC with Engineers from Ascend when we had a massive outage our our frame relay network. Trust me, it sucks when everything fails. (and no, we didn't have to re-build the network from scratch as incorrectly reported in article :) )

MCI WorldCom Outage More Widespread Than Reported
By Margie Semilof, CRN
August 10, 1999 5:42 PM ET MCI WorldCom has been underplaying the magnitude of its Frame Relay network outage, according to its customers, who have spoken to technicians in MCI WorldCom's own support center.

The Jackson, Miss.-based carrier suffered a massive outage of its network that started last Thursday night and continues until now. More than a year ago, in a similar situation, the AT&T (NYSE:T) Corp. network was down for roughly two days.

The carrier told customers that only about 15 percent of its Frame Relay network was down, but information from MCI WorldCom's own support center suggests otherwise.

One support technician said the switches that were affected were those made by Ascend Communications Inc., which now is owned by Lucent Technologies. One customer, who has lost his entire Frame Relay network, was told that Bell Laboratories technicians are working with MCI WorldCom technicians to rebuild the entire network from scratch.

[Ichingcarpenter]

7. Apple has an app for that

sorry I'll turn it off for now.
Hope that works now for you guys sorry.

[malaise]

9. We have the same problem here since yesterday

Doesn't bother me too much but the youngsters are slowly getting angry. :evilgrin:

[seabeyond]

11. OMG... NOes text. what is a person suppose to do, as they hold a phone. LMAO.

such a hoot

from a gal that has never texted, and really dont see the need

[snooper2]

12. Around 6 Trillion SMS (Short Message Service ( Text )) sent in 2010

:)

[seabeyond]

15. ya. ok, so? lol. hit the damn buttons and call.... if you gotta talk to someone

an

"i am bored" isnt to die over.... lol

[timtom]

13. Perhaps it's the revenge

of the 1%!

"Here! Text THIS, ya damn hippie commie bastard!"

[dixiegrrrrl]

14. Hmmmmmm...

[timtom]

17. Wait a minute! Wait a minute!

You didn't think that was even mildly amusing?

[dixiegrrrrl]

19. I was thinking along other lines. OWS/Twitter, etc.

[timtom]

20. That was my intent

that they would cripple OWS communications.

Comedic fail on my part.

[MadHound]

16. Oh No! People won't be able to text!

They'll have to resort to *gasp* talking to each other over their cell phones.

The Horror!

[dixiegrrrrl]

18. They can't Twitter news of OWS either.

THAT is a concern.

[IamK]

21. Just pull the plug on blackberry... The BETA of smart phones...