Blackberry outage reported
Users throughout the country are reporting a service outage on their BlackBerry handheld devices.
From Philadelphia to Chicago to Atlanta "CrackBerry" addicts are being forced to put down their handheld devices until Research in Motion, the company that provides the BlackBerry email service, can get back online.
Some companies are circulating notices to employees informing them of the outage: "Research in Motion (RIM) is currently experiencing a nationwide network outage. This has resulted in the inability to send or recieve email and PIN messages from your BlackBerry handheld. They are working as quick as possible to resolve this issue."
Research in Motion is currently being sued by NTP, a patent holding company. NTP is accusing RIM of infringing on its patents, and it's threatened to seek an injunction that could force RIM to shut off its BlackBerry service if a deal can't be brokered.
A representative from RIM could not be immediatly reached.
Marguerite Reardon has been a CNET News reporter since 2004, covering cell phone services, broadband, citywide Wi-Fi, the Net neutrality debate, as well as the ongoing consolidation of the phone companies. E-mail Maggie. 
