BlackBerry Glitch Having Caused Chaos around The World

The company has also been criticised for its failure to communicate during the crisis. Matt Bath, Which Magazine's technology editor said, 'BlackBerry should be doing more to keep customers informed about the ongoing problems with its service.'

'In some cases, customers have heard about the issue from their mobile network provider but have heard nothing from BlackBerry itself. That's not great customer service.'

Ordinary users were simply furious - one Tweeter said, 'It's ridiculous! SORT IT OUT!' and many talked of switching handset: 'What is wrong with Blackberry? Systems freeze too often. I'm getting closer to an iPhone.'

On Tuesday, UK operator T-Mobile UK blamed 'a European-wide outage on the BlackBerry network' which it said was affecting all mobile operators. There were also reports of problems across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Etisalat, which operates in the United Arab Emirates, apologized for 'the further interruption' to Blackberry services, 'once again due to RIM problems.' There were no reports of any problems in the U.S.

The problem which started on Monday saw millions of customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa unable to send instant messages or access the internet.

A RIM spokesman said: 'We're investigating, and we apologise to our customers for any inconvenience caused whilst this is resolved.'

RIM recently appeared before the Home Affairs Select Committee following the riots which took place in England in August. Much of the disorder was reportedly organised using its BlackBerry Messenger service.

Users were still able to access the internet on a WiFi network but email and the instant messaging service were cut off all together.

It's a major embarrassment for the company, which prides itself on routing email and messages securely and privately through its servers.