BlackBerry Internet Service users in Europe, the Middle East and Africa will be suffering some downtime from 2-6 GMT as they get upgraded to version 3.0. Some of the most important features we’ve heard about BIS 3.0 are support for WMA audio files and OpenOffice documents, as well as two-way GMail read/unread syncronization. Here’s what the internal memo says regarding the EMEA upgrade:
BlackBerry Internet Service v2.8 upgrade to BlackBerry Internet Service v3.0 – EMEA – 14 March
BBCHG45911 (Update) S1 Severity Maintenance for BlackBerry Internet Service (v2.x) Email service for subscribers of *EMEA BIS (MULT)
This message is to inform you of scheduled network maintenance.
Maintenance Summary: BlackBerry Internet Service v2.8 upgrade to BlackBerry Internet Service v3.0
Impact: BlackBerry Internet Service subscribers may be unable to send or receive messages, use the BlackBerry Internet Service web site, or perform activities such as creating new accounts, accessing their Internet mailbox, integrating third-party email accounts, or viewing email attachments during the maintenance.
Wireless service providers and device resellers may be unable to use BlackBerry administration web sites or perform activities such as creating subscriber accounts or provisioning services for subscribers during the maintenance. [0214]
Ticket Number: BBCHG45911
Change Window Start Date and Time: 14 March 2010 02:00:00 (GMT)
Change Window End Date and Time: 14 March 2010 06:00:00 (GMT)
Estimated Duration of Service Impact: 4 hour(s) and 0 minute(s)
% of Subscribers Affected: 100.00 (estimated)EST = GMT – 5 hours
EDT = GMT – 4 hours
AEST = GMT + 10 hours
Features coming in the following 3.1 will include built-in calendar syncing (not unlike what BIS 2.8 did with contacts), and contact syncing for Hotmail and Yahoo!. Of course, the big question remaining is, “when do we get BIS 3.0 in North America”? Shortly after, one can only assume.
[via BlackBerry Rocks]