NEW : RIM Says BlackBerry E-Mail Service Is Interrupted

Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Research In Motion Ltd., maker of the BlackBerry phone, said some North American consumers using the device are experiencing interruptions receiving personal e-mail messages.

Technicians are working on the outage, the Waterloo, Ontario-based company said in an e-mailed statement today. Phone service and Web browsing aren’t affected, RIM said.

The outage is affecting all BlackBerry users, regardless of their carrier, who rely on RIM’s Internet-based service for e- mail delivery instead of corporate servers, said Jeffrey Nelson, a spokesman for Verizon Wireless, the biggest U.S. mobile carrier. That means large corporate customers aren’t affected.

Sprint Nextel Corp. customers are also experiencing disruptions, said Crystal Davis, a spokeswoman for the third- largest U.S. mobile-phone company. AT&T Inc. is also affected, said Michael Coe, a spokesman for the second-biggest U.S. wireless carrier. Rogers Communications Inc., Canada’s largest wireless operator, is having interruptions as well, spokeswoman Odette Coleman said in an e-mail.

Businesses and governments worldwide rely on BlackBerrys to communicate with mobile workers. RIM, which competes with devices such as Apple Inc.’siPhone, had about 32 million subscribers globally at the end of August.

RIM fell $1.14, or 1.8 percent, to $63.53 at 12:33 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The stock had gained 59 percent this year before today.

Consumer Push

RIM is targeting consumers with models that have cameras and music players to boost sales as corporations curb spending amid the economic slump. The company, which gets about two- thirds of its revenue from North America, is scheduled to report third-quarter earnings today after the market closes.

Non-business customers made up more than 80 percent of RIM’s newsubscribers in the second quarter, compared with 50 percent two years earlier. The company said in September that more than half its total subscriber base was outside the business world.

RIM’s BlackBerry Curve was the top consumer smart phone in the U.S. in the third quarter as price cuts drove up sales, according to research firm NPD Group Inc. Apple’s iPhone 3GS and 3G took second and third place.

source : http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aTjX7_Jjmezs