BlackBerry Bold sales halted in UK

By Tim Conneally, BetaNews

October 10, 2008, 3:04 PM

Research in Motion's BlackBerry Bold has undergone yet another delay, this time it's been attributed to "software issues" by UK service provider Orange.

The launch of Blackberry's 3G Bold smartphone in the US has been restricted due to what were purported to be extended Quality of Service tests on AT&T's network. This explanation now has some doubt cast upon it as a leaked document from UK carrier Orange attributes its halted Bold sales to software issues.

To those awaiting the Bold, this is the most painful BlackBerry launch yet. The initial availability was pushed back among rumors that the device was overheating. Research in Motion's Erik Van Drunen discounted these as a product of that wretched hive of scum and villainy "the blogosphere."

When the device was later released in Canada, battery life issues were blamed for its dilatory appearance. In the UK, the device was launched on service provider Orange, but was made unavailable for purchase on the carrier's site this week.

What appears to be an internal memo to Orange staffers that was leaked yesterday, and printed by the Mobile Tech Addicts blog, reads as follows: "Following reports of software issues with the BlackBerry Bold handset across a variety of mobile operators, Orange has decided to act in the interest of its customers by suspending shipments of the device in the UK. We are currently awaiting feed back from RIM as to when an industry wide fix for these issues will be in place, and expect this suspension to be an interim measure. We apologise for any inconvenience this issue may cause you...BlackBerry/RIM are doing everything they can to resolve this issue and will be completing full testing and validation to ensure future handsets do not have any quality issues.  This may take a couple of weeks so it's up to us to do what's best for our customers."

BetaNews has sent inquiries to both Research in Motion and Orange that await response. The UK's Telegraph claims to have received confirmation of the shipping suspension from Orange UK representatives.