Yahoo blames Microsoft for Windows Phone 7 ‘phantom data’ glitch

By Aemon Malone February 2, 2011

Yesterday, Yahoo issued a statement acknowledging that its Yahoo Mail service was at fault for the so called “phantom data” glitch that has led to scores of Windows Phone 7 users burning through their monthly data allotments at alarming rates. Yahoo cited an “inefficiency” in the “synchronization of email between Windows Phone Mail clients and Yahoo! Mail” as the root cause behind the data gorging. Yahoo’s statement echoed the findings of programmer and blogger Rafael Rivera who first identified Yahoo Mail as responsible for the glitch.

Later on Tuesday, Yahoo issued another statement, this time shifting some of the blame to Microsoft. “Yahoo! Mail is widely available on tens of millions of mobile phones, including those running on Apple iOS, Android, Nokia Symbian, and RIM,” Yahoo said in a statement to CNET. “The issue on the Windows Phones is specific to how Microsoft chose to implement IMAP for Yahoo! Mail and does not impact Yahoo! Mail on these other mobile devices.”

Yahoo stated that it is encouraging Microsoft to adopt a standard way of integrating with Yahoo’s mail client in order to bring about a permanent fix. In its previous statement, Yahoo said that a fix will be available “in the coming weeks.”

In the meantime, affected users can follow Microsoft’s suggested workaround posted here.

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