Dubai: Telecom provider etisalat has stopped a "performance enhancing" patch for its BlackBerry subscribers after receiving complaints that performing the update resulted in excessive battery heating and drainage.
"In response to a phased software upgrade, some etisalat BlackBerry customers have seen issues on some hardware-software combinations that led to extra consumption of the handset battery," said an etisalat spokesperson. "This routine upgrade process has now been stopped as a precautionary measure."
Etisalat has asked subscribers to call their customer service line on 101 to report the issue, but subscribers have said that customer service agents have either not been made aware of the issue, or are unable to assist them.
Hamad M, a subscriber, said that he called etisalat about the issue and was told by a customer service agent to format the phone. "She said formatting it would make it like new," he said.
While the operator has stopped issuing the update, it did not say how it expects to solve the issue for those who have already installed it.
"I spent Dh3,000 on this phone seven months ago and now the battery drains in an hour and there's no solution in sight," said Twinkle M, a subscriber.
Etisalat did not say whether responsibility lies with the operator or with Research in Motion (RIM), the manufacturer. RIM did not respond to Gulf News requests for a comment.
However, Abbas Jaffer Ali, editor of Dubai-based technology website Tbreak, said since RIM had not issued an update for some time, the update is likely to have been issued by etisalat alone. "This is a carrier issue," he said.
"We don't know yet what the problem is, but considering the symptoms, my guess is that the new update does not close the data connection once it is opened, which results in battery drainage," he said, adding that battery life was reduced to three or four hours.
Etisalat said that not all BlackBerry subscribers were affected, but did not say how many people the upgrade was sent to.
Du did not respond to queries as to whether its subscribers were affected.
Are you a Blackberry user? Have you received the wi-fi update? How has it affected you?
Your comments
Whats the Solution for this. I have 8900 Curve and my battery drains in 2 hrs and it's just brand new
Ashok
Fujairah,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 17:08
This is the height of irresponsibility.
How can a company send out a patch promising to upgrade performance only to make a cell phone unusable?
This is incompetence of the highest magnitude.
Disrupting the services of so many businessmen and women around the country shows a blatant disregard for their customers, one which Etisalat has demonstrated repeatedly.
Marcus
Dubai,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 16:53
Etisalat has done us so bad sending us that patch! I wish I havent downloaded it, now my Blackberry Bold can barely survive one hour without being recharged! It is indeed very inconvenient.
Reema
Abu Dhabi,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 15:31
Good thing I don't have BlackBerry!
Erma Layco
Dubai,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 15:14
Its crazy, the battery doesnt even last for an hour. If Gulf news had not to highlight it????? I wonder what I would have done. I stopped my wife and kids from downloading the patch onto their BB's
But mine is struggling, car charger desk charger and all...struggling to stay alive. In fact I had turned the BB off and after an hour when I tried switching it on it was dead, Refused to come on. It is rather horrible.
Thomas
Dubai,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 15:08
I received the update on Saturday and installed it. My "stand-by" battery life has been reduced to about 3 hours. I have to keep this phone on the charger almost all the time. It is now almost a land-line! I have a Blackberry Bold with OS 4.6.0.266.
Samir Kilachand
Dubai,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 11:57
I have received the patch from Etisalat on 11-07-09 and I have installed it on the same day. I am using a BB Bold and its battery drained out as soon as I finished the installation. I had tried re-charging the battery few times, however it keep drains out in no time. I recommend Etisalat to test these patches before sending it to customers in future to avoid these kinds of inconvinence.
Helvin
Abu Dhabi,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 11:57
I have been calling 101 since last week and every time they provide me with different solution (reboot the device or wipe it) I lost my data and still facing the same issue I think they should be honest with the customer who trusted them and says that they don't have any solution. I wasted my time by calling and wiping my device and by charging the battery all the time we might lose it, so would they replace it for us for free?
Amal
Dubai,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 11:55
i have the 8900 recently, and this issue to battery getting drain started lastweek, hence i have to buy another 8900, as i dont know what was the issue, and when i called the support they said there is no warranty on the battery. hence i have to buy another 8900 which cost me 2000 DHS. this is ridiculous
Jameel Ahmad
Dubai,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 11:54
My phone's battery is draining down as well...!! 1 1/2 hours max after i have downloaded the patch.
TO compliment that... 101 keeps me on hold and holding for minsssss and still no reply. . And no one replies.
Finally comes a BRILLIANT solution...!!
FORMAT IT.
Dont you test your things before sending it out.
So much of pain. Backup, format, instate, download things again.
Sheer IGNORANCE
Shailesh Udhwani
Dubai,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 11:52
I installed the patch and was exceptionally surprised to see my battery dead after about one hour. It seems the only "performance" this patch addresses is that of the battery. Etisalat should explain to its users, who are guaranteed to be less trusting from now on, what the patch is in aid of. I for one will be very reluctant to install anything from them after this sad effort.
Tarek Damerji
Dubai,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 11:42
to solve it, just change the permissions of the application "Registration" to deny on all levels until Etisalat solves the problem
Mamoun
Dubai,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 10:50
etisalt call centre are unaware and advising people to format the handset unncessary .
blackberry battery drain has become a major issue, people are ussing blackberry as business communication mean, if such thing are happening for high cost handset it definately hampering the brand name and effecting people work too .........
Tushar
Dubai,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 10:44
Mine is an unlocked device(Curve 8320).Its not affected by the patch.Works as normal,though it doesn seem any different from before receiving the patch.
Rakesh
Dubai,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 10:44
My boss want his unit to be fixed. What will i do? Ther's always problem on his Blackberry. My work is affected so much.
John
Dubai,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 10:38
Etesalat patch Damaged my BB!!!!!!
Abdul Rahman Al Hammadi
Sharjah,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 10:35
Thanks a lot for this news.. I thought the Blackberry I bought recently screwed up..Just after reading the news..I deleted the Blackberry Registration software patch that I installed yesterday and now its working perfectly fine..(so far)..hope this info helps others with the battery draining issue...cheers MK..
Muralikrishna
Dubai,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 10:34
Etisalat Subscriber, received update 3 days ago.
I am noticing slight drainage, but nothing dramatic.
I believe Etisalat is able to produce another patch and send to all. All we can do is wait.
Barter
Dubai,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 10:34
i have downloaded the patch which i received on my blackberry curve 8900 last week. this weekend the phone battery would die in around 2 hours even if it was completely charged. i thought there was something wrong with the phone so i took it to where i bought it from to fix it. but this information above is really useful, wished i knew earlier
Yasmine Sakr
Dubai,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 10:27
I am facing the same problem as well and thought that it simply my battery wearing off after a year of heavy use! After being here for almost 6 years, I doubt that Etisalat will do anything about it, I guess we will end up having to buy new phones...at our cost!
Nicolas Reincke
Dubai,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 10:20
I did receive the blackberry update and it drained my battery to approximately half of its capacity and even more.
I went and bought another battery thinking that the problem is from my battery but it obviously wasn't... I called etisalat this morning and explained the situation and they asked me to remove the battery from the device while it's on and put it back 5 minutes after. It didn't solve the matter... I am still waiting for a solution.
Thanks.
Dany Karam
Dubai,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 10:17
I did recieved an update from etisalat(Jul 11)after which affected my unit battery usage. I did not know the exact cause until I've learned from this article.
I hope further actions would be initiated by the service provider to solve this without the need of formatting the OS.
Vince
Sharjah,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 10:16
Same problem as mentioned,draining up of battery very fast,over heating of the instrument,chkd with etisalat no solution,kindly advs if any solution received,it has happened with my new black berry expression
Jyustina Malost
Dubai,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 10:15
Battery draining in hours and overheating. I just stopped using it and reported my Comapny to get fixed it
E. Prabhakar
Abu Dhabi,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 10:14
I bought my phone one week ago and now my battary barely lasts 4 hours. Dont you think this is etisalats fault? dont you think they should fix this issue and shouldnt we all be compansated on this...!
Mohammad
Abu Dhabi,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 10:10
I did get the update and the battery drains in an hour yet I know that all you will get from Etisalat is live with it they do not tell you even where and who is the service center for BB
Basel Al Salah
Dubai,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 10:07
I received this update last week and ever since, I've had to have my Blackberry Storm connected to power the entire day. The battery drains completely after about 2 hours. Etisalat has provided no help at all! Myself and others in my position need help!
Prashanth Athreya
Dubai,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 10:01
I was wondering since days why the battery life was so short, and yesterday I bought a replacement battery at AED 155. Hope that Etisalat will soon instruct the affected subscribers how to handle this issue. BlackBerry is a working tool and should at least last for a long working day. That's a chance for Etisalat to showcase its customer service!
Werner Brosse
Dubai,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 10:01
Battery getting drained with new patch..
Vaneet Mehta
Dubai,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 10:01
I have been adversely affected by this new update. Most of my work depends heavily on the Blackberry and this is not allowing me to work at all.
I strongly demand that Etisalat rectifies this issue immediately for everyone that is affected by this bad update patch.
Emad
Abu Dhabi,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 10:01
I feel that my battery drains frequently during the normal course itself and now after upgradation it has become worse. Needs recharging daily for hours together and becomes too hot. Need a permanent solution for this..
Malini
Dubai,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 09:55
I received the update and i had to carry a charger whereever i go!
at the begining i thought i was ripped off and the battery is dead ! but thank God Gulfnews made it clear to us :)
M..S..
Dubai,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 09:54
Yes, I was affected. Naive as I was, I thought the problem lies with my phone. I went out to buy a new battery, which did not help. Then I went to buy a new phone, which worked fine, till the new batch arrived again. Then it was the same story again. At this point I got suspicious and called etisalat, who told me to backup my data, wipe the handheld clean, hard reset my handheld, and then restore the data. This did work.
but now I have a battery, which I did not need, I have a new phone, which I did not need. All out of my pocket? Of course!
Looks like another great episode in the history of etisalat.
BTW: last night an interesting article popped up on the internet, which should make us all very worried.
http://supportforums.blackberry.com/
rim/board/message?board.id
Max
Dubai,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 09:53
it was a horrible experience..... my battery gets exhausted every hr... it is not acceptable... Etisalat should have had reviewed this plan before affecting the people adversely...
Gulneet Chadha
Dubai,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 09:50
I got this patch alert on my Blackberry couple of days back and I happily applied that. My phone dies within 45-50 minutes and I need to charge it again. Etisalat should try testing this in their labs rather than trying it on their customers. Ridiculous!!!
Farhaan
Dubai,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 09:50
I am using blackberry service from Etisalat for last one year. My blackberry battery lasts for more than 2 days. After installing the patch from Etisalat, my phone got switched off automatically and i found out that the battery has been drained out completely.
I have no idea that how will it be fixed?
Will Etisalat provide us a new battery free of cost, in case of battery damage?
Regards
Kashif
Kashif Shafiq
Abu Dhabi,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 09:49
no need to instal the patch on your blackberry
Tiby Monheef
Abu Dhabi,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 09:48
MY BATTTERY IN FACT NOW IT DOESNT LAST LONG, 3 TO 4 HOURS AND THATS IT.
Luis Fernando Guerreiro Clara
Abu Dhai,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 09:45
I updated the patch from Etisalat and now I am facing the same problem. Now I don't know how to remove that patch from my mobile.
Wajih
Dubai,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 09:45
I installed the patch in my storm as directed by Etisalat, since then I am not able to connect to the data service. This has been addressed to Etisalat several times during the past 3 days and they have no solution. After talking to one of the High Rank representative I came to know that this patch is been downloaded partially to the machine and the rest to the sim card and they don't know how to un install this patch. After several trials I managed to remove this patch from my machine but not from the sim card. Now I have my machine back working perfectly, no heat, no drainage of battery but it takes time to connect to the Data network after restarting it. I have the solution and its very easy.
H. Azam
Dubai,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 09:43
I've been affected. Went and bought a new battery thinking that it was a battery issue. So what is the solution?
MC
Dubai,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 09:43
Now a days we were facing slow message delivery, when we try to contact support they said this patch will fix all this issue, we applied alredy for some phone
Peter
Dubai,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 09:38
I bought a new BlackBerry on Thursday and had this problem since Friday morning. I went back to the Etisalat stand, where I had purchased the phone in order to exchange it, as I thought it was a faulty phone. Etisalat refused to exchange a two day old phone, saying it has to be sent to their repair workshop in Dubai
Nikolai E
Abu Dhabi,UAE
Posted: July 13, 2009, 09:32
