A widespread system failure affected BlackBerry service in the Western Hemisphere beginning last night, leaving users with a backlog of e-mails and no hint as to when the problem would be rectified.  Service was not restored until late morning eastern time. Research in Motion's (RIM) stock dropped 1% in early trading on NASDAQ as news of the service blackout spread.

As yet, there's been no reason from RIM on the cause of the system failure or how many of its estimated 8 million subscribers have been affected. A recorded message on the company's customer service line this morning only notifies users of the service interruption. And a statement issued this morning by the company's PR firm only said, "Root cause is still under review, but service for most customers was restored overnight and RIM is closely monitoring systems in order to maintain normal service levels."