Danger expects Sidekick outage to end soon

Sidekick users frustrated by intermittent outages in the device's data services should not have to wait much longer before the problems are fixed, the company that maintains the service said on Tuesday.

The provider acknowledged the issues in a statement sent to CNET News.com, stressing that the problems have been largely resolved.

"Danger and T-Mobile regret any inconveniences experienced by Sidekick customers as a result of an identified technical issue that has been limiting customer access to data services since Sunday, March 6," the companies stated in an e-mail statement sent by a Danger representative. "Danger engineers have put fixes in place, and expect data performance to improve throughout the day on March 8, and full service to be restored by tomorrow morning, March 9."

The outages are the latest issues plaguing the mobile phone and Internet services provided by Danger and T-Mobile. Both companies have come under scrutiny as the means by which online thieves managed to steal the addresses, e-mail messages and images from the Sidekick of celebrity heiress Paris Hilton, an incident that came to light last month.

The recent appearance on the Internet of a private sex video of Limp Bizkit front man Fred Durst and an ex-girlfriend--allegedly stolen from Durst's PC--has also been linked to the same group of thieves.

The outage drove frustrated users to Danger's Hiptop.com forum and caused at least one longtime user to reevaluate the service. Web programmer Dayne Kaufman said that he had been a Sidekick user for many years, but after more than 60 hours of downtime in the past five days, he said he doesn't believe he can rely on the service for business-related communications.

"Ever since the new year, service has been very spotty," he said. "I don't think I will be able to rely on my T-Mail account (Sidekick's e-mail) anymore."

Despite that, Kaufman said he would continue to use his Sidekick, which remains his favorite gadget.

"However, I don't see how any outage affecting this many people can last for days," he said. "Hours, yes. Half a day, maybe. Three days? I don't think so."

I hope so..

I too have had my service down for 3 days, and I hope it's resolved tomarrow. If it's not up by March 9th or 10th something really has to come or I suspect Tmobile to lose alot of their customers.

We will see

I sincerely hope that this is true. I also sincerely hope that the recent post by someone claiming to be the Danger CEO is true in referrence to some impressive feature. Somehow, this is how I see it, we will all feel lucky to have service back to it's "normal" spotty self by tomorrow. As I have said many times, I LOVE the Sidekick 2, it's the best multi tasking device I have owned and when it works it is an amazing device. However, I think these outages have taken their toll on both personal and business users. Danger, I really hope that we, your end users, do not become in any way used to this type of occurance. Throughout this entire ordeal I have been inspired by the supporters of Danger that have gone to great deals to express their love and understanding for this company. Thats nice and all. I love the device, when it works. And I love the Danger service, when it works. At this point however, the glass that I see is half empty.

It's all Dangers fault.

I'm usually a very good speller. But due to this entire sidekick fury, I have been noticing several spelling errors in my posts. I hold you responsible and I really hope that when this is all over with (for now) that I can go back my happy good spelling self.

Corrections:

reference

occurrence

P.S.

LMAO, of course I don't blame Danger for my spelling errors. Maybe my sense of humor is returning due to this great news that something is going to work the way it's supposed to anyway.

What I am doing

I have tried my sidekick this morning and it seems that service is improving, but certainly not fixed.

Webservice timed out after a minute loading yahoo wap page (normally a 2 second job if that)

its 6:25 am est. Kissimmee, Fl.


If you are still down, or you are up but still upset, I suggest that you sign my online petition, as of this morning, I have 32 people who have signed. The number of posts on this site suggest that there are many more still out:

the online petition is
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.elgrecocomputers.net/complaint.html" target="_newWindow">http://www.elgrecocomputers.net/complaint.html</a>

my web site is:
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.elgrecocomputers.net" target="_newWindow">http://www.elgrecocomputers.net</a>

If cnet is watching, it would be cool if you publish this in your next news thing...


I appreciate everyone who signs. I am sending it out on saturday morning (or afternoon).

Thanks

Alexandros (greektux) I have tried my sidekick this morning and it seems that service is improving, but certainly not fixed. I have been waiting for a good minute and the yahoo wap page still not up.

its 6:13 am est. Kissimmee, Fl.

If you are still down, or you are up but still upset, I suggest that you sign my online petition, as of this morning, I have 32 people who have signed. The number of posts on this site suggest that there are many more still out:

the online petition is
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.elgrecocomputers.net/complaint.html" target="_newWindow">http://www.elgrecocomputers.net/complaint.html</a>

my web site is:
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.elgrecocomputers.net" target="_newWindow">http://www.elgrecocomputers.net</a>

I appreciate everyone who signs. I am sending it out on saturday morning (or afternoon).

Thanks

Alexandros (greektux)

Still out

I'm here in Bay Area California. As of 400PM the service has finally come on, but continues to drop. Email is still not functional either. T Mobile will not give a date to expect full service and will not provide any rebates or credits.