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.