Everyone should be aware of the huge data outage that hit BlackBerry users, apparently globally, yesterday December 22nd. At first it was BlackBerry Messenger and then the problem spread to all of BIS including accessing the internet with apps and receiving emails. Here is a statement from RIM about the outage courtesy of DataOutageNews:

“A service interruption occurred Tuesday that affected BlackBerry customers in the Americas. Message delivery was delayed or intermittent during the service interruption. Phone service and SMS services on BlackBerry smartphones were unaffected. Root cause is currently under review, but based on preliminary analysis, it currently appears that the issue stemmed from a flaw in two recently released versions of BlackBerry Messenger (versions 5.0.0.55 and 5.0.0.56) that caused an unanticipated database issue within the BlackBerry infrastructure. RIM has taken corrective action to restore service.

“RIM has also provided a new version of BlackBerry Messenger (version 5.0.0.57) and is encouraging anyone who downloaded or upgraded BlackBerry Messenger since December 14th to upgrade to this latest version which resolves the issue. RIM continues to monitor its systems to maintain normal service levels and apologizes for any inconvenience to customers.”

The issue was so serious that CNBC even reported on it with the video above, but they say everything should be back to normal as of today. If you haven’t already make sure you download the new BBM from blackberry.com/messenger.

Is anyone still having trouble with their emails, BBM or accessing the internet?