About eight million Americans were left without the use of their BlackBerry late yesterday as the network behind the handheld e-mail device failed for the second time in a year.

BlackBerry users in the US faced “intermittent service delays” resulting in the inability to send and receive messages or browse the internet, Research In Motion, the Canadian manufacturer of the popular handset, said.

The service failed at about 8.30pm GMT and was restored just before midnight.

The firm has about 12 million worldwide subscribers and counts President Bush among its users.

Analysts said that the failure in the network, which comes after a similar fault in April last year, could lead to companies considering competitors to the BlackBerry.

Avi Greengart, an analyst for Current Analysis Inc, in Washington, told Bloomberg: “If they weren't goaded into action last time, there's no question that IT managers are going to be looking for alternatives now.”

Research in Motion has seen its stock more than double in value in a year, as the market share of the BlackBerry climbed from 8.9 per cent to 11.4 per cent.

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