Those internal data routing systems will get you every time.

Research in Motion (RIM) on Tuesday blamed a recently upgraded routing system for a service outage that plagued BlackBerry customers for several hours late Monday afternoon.

"The upgrade was part of RIM's routine and ongoing efforts to increase overall capacity for longer term growth," a spokesperson said in a statement. "RIM continuously increases the capacity of its infrastructure in advance of longer term demand."

RIM insisted that it has had successful upgrades in the past, but not so with yesterday's revamp, which caused "intermittent service delays," RIM said.

RIM restored service last night around 6:30 p.m. EST. Only e-mail messages were disrupted; voice and text messaging went through as usual, the company said.

"No messages were lost and the system continues to operate normally today," according to RIM.

Full statement after the jump.

RIM's early investigation of the service interruption that occurred on Monday points to a problem with an internal data routing system within the BlackBerry service infrastructure that had been recently upgraded. The upgrade was part of RIM's routine and ongoing efforts to increase overall capacity for longer term growth. RIM continuously increases the capacity of its infrastructure in advance of longer term demand. Similar upgrades have been successfully implemented in the past, but there appears to have been a problem with this specific upgrade that caused the intermittent service delays. Once the problem was identified and isolated, RIM was able to quickly restore service levels. No messages were lost and the system continues to operate normally today. RIM has made significant investments to improve its system recovery infrastructure and processes over the last year, which enabled service levels to return to normal quickly. RIM continues to focus on providing industry-leading reliability in its products and services and continues to invest in its infrastructure and processes. Once again, RIM apologizes to its customers for any inconvenience.

Note: RIM's first priority during a service interruption is always to restore service and then establish, monitor and maintain stability. Full analysis of service interruptions typically take several days or longer and RIM always wishes to provide the most accurate information possible. RIM is sharing insight from its preliminary analysis, but continues its in-depth diagnostic analysis and will share additional information as available.