BlackBerry service returns to normal

So not quite the short outage we anticipated earlier in the week. In fact, the BlackBerry service has been down for the majority of the working week, no doubt playing havoc in offices up and down the country. But thankfully, all of that is behind us, as services have gradully been restored. They should be working as normal as you read this.

According to Mashable, a further conference was convened late yesterday, which featured RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis, co-CEO Jim Balsillie and CTO David Yach. Apologies were the order of the day, along with a further explanation. Lazaridis said that a 'dual redundant, high-capacity core switch designed to protect the service failed', which set in motion a service failure and a knock-on data queue, which the company struggled to deal with. This resulted in the European problems moving further around the world -  the Middle East, Africa and, eventually, the U.S.

The company confirmed that 'third-party vendors' managed the failed switch, with talks planned about that (you wouldn't be in their shoes). But more significantly for users, the company did hint at compensation. co-CEO Jim Balsillie said RIM is looking at it and it is 'something we plan to come back to these customers on very, very soon.'

The difficulty is obviously how much to pay. The BIS/BES service isn't a huge amount of money per month, so a four-day fraction of that monthly outlay is a tiny amount. However, there's the additional cost of goodwill and inconvenience, which is certainly a more significant amount, especially if RIM wants some of those customers upgrading BlackBerry devices in the next 12 months.

We'll keep you posted when RIM does announce its compensation package. In the meantime, welcome back to the mobile world, it's horrible being outside, isn't it?