Massive data outage hits Sidekick users over the weekend

It's been a long, frustrating weekend for U.S. Sidekick owners, who saw their phones lose pretty much all data access starting Friday—and as of early Monday, the outage still wasn't quite over.

Message boards on T-Mobile and HipTop (the official site for Microsoft-owned Danger, developer of the Sidekick OS) began lighting up early Friday with complaints from angry users, who said that their Sidekicks were no longer able to surf the Web, check their e-mail, tap into Facebook or MySpace, or access any other data services. The good news: voice calls and text messaging were apparently both working throughout the blackout.

A "sticky" on HipTop's Sidekick support board posted on Saturday promised that data services would "begin gradually returning in the next couple of hours," but as The Boy Genius Report notes, Sidekick users were still flooding support threads with complains come Sunday.

So here we are on Monday morning, and based on the latest message board posts, Sidekick data service remains spotty, at best. On its support site, T-Mobile says that it "anticipate[s] a significant portion of data services to be restored by Monday," but "some richer data services may lag." It also advised that Sidekick users may have to log back in to their accounts before accessing data services again.

Some users trying to log back in Monday morning said they weren't having much success. "It's been 20 minutes trying to sign in and I'm still waiting," wrote one Sidekicker, with another first posting "Yeah, I'm at least signed in" but then following up with "I spoke too soon. Not signed in. UGUGHHGHG".

While we wait for Sidekick service to finally return to normal, there's no word on whether T-Mobile will offer a credit for the lost service days.

So, Sidekick users, quick survey: Who has their data service back? Anyone still down for the count? Let us know.

Update [9/6/09]: T-Mobile has released a new statement, apologizing for the outage and offering a credit for a month's worth of Sidekick data service. Here's the complete release:

Dear valued T-Mobile Sidekick customers:
 
I realize that for many of you, your T-Mobile Sidekick is how you stay in touch with your friends, family and others.  I sincerely apologize for the impact the current disruption of data services may be having on you.  I assure you that T-Mobile is working very closely with Danger/Microsoft to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.  T-Mobile-supported services, such as voice calls and SMS/MMS, have not been affected and continue to be operational.  Danger/Microsoft has been working, and will continue working through the week, to restore data functionality and other features.
 
I understand that this data service disruption is very frustrating to our valued Sidekick customers.  For many years, the Sidekick has been, and continues to be, a cornerstone device for T-Mobile.  And we believe Sidekick customers are among the most loyal customers anywhere.  Recognizing that, and to address any inconvenience Sidekick data customers are experiencing, T-Mobile will automatically credit one month of data service to customers who subscribe to T-Mobile Sidekick data plans.  There is nothing you need to do to get this credit – T-Mobile will post the credit to these accounts in the coming days.
 
Please continue to visit our Forums (http://www.t-mobile.com/sidekick) to obtain the latest FAQs regarding the service disruption.  I appreciate you being a loyal T-Mobile customer, and appreciate your patience as everyone works hard to resolve the current issues.  Thank you.
 
Sincerely,
 
Jim Alling, Chief Operations Officer, T-Mobile USA