Bug blight busted
Microsoft has revealed that Yahoo! is responsible for the ‘phantom data' problems blighting Windows Phone 7 handsets.
The software giant vowed to investigate the reason for the bug, which made many phones send and receive data without their owners knowing, eating into precious monthly data allowances.
The glitch surfaced at the start of 2011 and Microsoft recently said it had discovered the bug was caused by an unnamed ‘third party' service but did not name names.
A Microsoft spokesperson reportedly said: "At this point in our investigation, we believe this is responsible for most of the reported incidents. We are in contact with the third party to assist them in making the necessary fixes."
However, Microsoft has now confirmed that Yahoo! was responsible for the problem, which affected mostly US users of its mobile platform, the BBC reported.
Microsoft issued a statement which reportedly said: "We have determined that an inefficiency exists in the synchronisation of e-mail between the Windows Phone mail client and Yahoo Mail. This inefficiency can result in larger than expected data usage for a very small percentage of users."
The fault is believed to make some WP7 phones download up to 25 times more information than needed to fetch messages from Yahoo! Mail.
Microsoft is apparently working with Yahoo to fix the problem in the next couple of weeks but some people are already questioning why it took Microsoft so long to disclose source of the problem.
Some commentators have accused Microsoft of only disclosing the problem with the Yahoo! service after a blogger called Rafael Rivera forced its hand by publishing a blog detailing the glitch, which he described as 'shocking, but not surprising'.
Another Microsoft blogger called Paul Thurrott, who is reportedly the author of a forthcoming book entitled Windows Phone Secrets, told the Beeb: "There's no reason and no excuse, for this information to not have been provided earlier."
