BBM back up 'before the weekend', but no promises

BlackBerry maker RIM has said it hopes to resolve the BBM outage that sees BlackBerry owners without email, Internet or messaging services before the weekend, as the company admits the outage is "unacceptable".

The company hopes to fix the service "before the weekend, but can't offer any commitments or guarantees, because it is important not to underestimate the complexity and scale of the service," a BlackBerry exec told One Mobile Ring.

That's unlikely to prove much consolation to those left without BBM -- if the hundreds of comments on our site and Facebook wall are anything to go by, BlackBerry fans are unwilling to wait another moment to get back online, and the possibility of another two days in the dark will be a bitter pill to swallow.

At a BlackBerry event in London, hilariously unfortunately called the BlackBerry Innovation Forum, RIM's UK managing director Stephen Bates said the company is "working night and day to solve the outage. Our apologies to all our customers."

He (accurately) noted that the outages were "not acceptable", the Guardian reports.

BlackBerry Messenger, along with email and Internet services went down on Monday, apparently due to a "core switch failure", and prompting outrage among the BlackBerry community. RIM said it'd fixed it yesterday morning, but it was wrong -- the service is still very much borked.

Reports are starting to appear indicating that the issue may have migrated to the US. The BBC says BlackBerry users are tweeting that their phones are going offline.

The problem couldn't have come at a worse time for RIM -- today Apple launches its iMessage rival to BBM. BlackBerry users mightily miffed with their mobiles could be convinced to jump ship and buy an iPhone.