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Relief and maybe some regret as Blackberry services resume

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Blackberry users are fully online again after three days of disruption.

Millions of customers across the world have had messaging and email services interrupted following infrastructure problems at the mobile phone manufacturer.

The reputation of the smartphone brand, particularly popular with professionals and business users, has been battered since news of the blackout broke on Monday morning.

With many choosing Blackberry for their email and social networking capabilities, the loss of such services has been a source of anger for customers.

Despite assurances that all problems have been rectified, some have been left deeply unhappy by the experience.

Asked when she first noticed problems, Melissa Ballantyne (20), a trainee teacher from Kennoway, said: “It was a few days ago.

“A friend asked me if I was having problems with my Blackberry and when I thought about it I realised I wasn’t getting stuff from Facebook or any of my emails.

“It was only when I checked my Hotmail account that I saw I had loads of emails that I hadn’t read. It’s really frustrating as I’m on placement at the moment and I need to keep in touch.

“I won’t get another one.”

Mark Peyton (28), a teacher from Dunfermline, has also experienced problems.

“I’ve just felt totally disconnected,” he said. “It’s quite a serious problem, particularly for those people who need it to keep in touch for work.

“If it’s going to be a problem in the future then I will switch.

“I’ve been thinking about an iPhone for a while anyway.”

However, while Blackberry’s problems have affected many, not all users have experienced disruption.

Bruce MacDougall from Perth contacted The Courier’s Facebook page to proclaim: “My Blackberry is ok as I’m sending this message via BB.”

For another, Maria Gray from Dundee, the interruption has allowed for some relaxation.

“I enjoyed the peace and quiet,” she said. “It’s made me turn my notifications off permanently.”

Research in Motion (RIM), the company behind the Blackberry brand, confirmed that services for all customers had been restored.

The fault, described as a “core switch failure” effectively a breakdown of its servers , created a backlog of messages, grinding the network to a halt.

The problem is said to have affected 70 million global users.