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RIM: We have 'an unprecedented track record of reliability'

Even with the big outage earlier this month, Research In Motion's U.K. and Ireland director says the company's track record speaks for itself.

Don Reisinger
CNET contributor Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has covered everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Besides his work with CNET, Don's work has been featured in a variety of other publications including PC World and a host of Ziff-Davis publications.
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Don Reisinger
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Research In Motion's BlackBerry services outage earlier this month was undoubtedly a black eye for the company, but the firm's managing director for the U.K. and Ireland says it was an anomaly.

"We have an unprecedented track record of reliability," RIM's U.K. and Ireland managing director Stephen Bates told Mobile News Online in an interview published yesterday. "Our focus is on providing the best communications experience and the feedback we get from our customers is we normally deliver on that."

Bates went on to tell the publication that he estimated U.K. BlackBerry service uptime was at 99.97 percent over the past 18 months.

RIM's BlackBerry services were down for several days earlier this month, leaving user e-mail and messaging unavailable to people around the globe in the worst-ever outage for the company. To help quell customer unrest, RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis posted a video on his company's site apologizing for the problem.

"Since launching BlackBerry in 1999, it's been my goal to provide reliable real-time communications around the world," Lazaridis said in a video posted on his company's Web site. "We did not deliver on that goal this week--not even close. I apologize for the service outages this week. We've let many of you down."

In his discussion with Mobile News Online, Bates echoed that sentiment, saying that he understood customer outcry and realized how important it is for RIM to not let it happen again.

"These issues have absolutely not been blown out of proportion," Bates said in the interview. "If anything we've welcomed the amount of media coverage we've received. This has been a great opportunity for us to accept and understand where we've failed and apologize. We're not sitting idly by and will do whatever is necessary to ensure the service operates to the high levels of availability we've previously seen."