The popular video calling program Skype experienced a massive outage yesterday. As yet, no cause has been determined, although Skype insiders have not yet ruled out a purposeful attack of some sort. Skype’s video calling and instant messaging services were unavailable for most of yesterday, and a good majority of users were unable even to log into the program.
Skype’s CEO Tony Bates has made assurances that he and the rest of the Skype team are working tirelessly to ensure all users are brought back online soon. In addition, Bates has said that Skype may be offering credit vouchers to users of their paid service who were affected by the outage. In response to inquiries, Bates has said that he understands what a large impact the outage has had on many loyal Skype users and hopes to rectify the situation as soon as possible.
Currently, about 16.5 million users are back on and using Skype, which is about 80% of the normal traffic rate for this time of day. Skype is focusing on repairing its core services, such as text instant messaging and its online audio and video calling services. There is no word yet on when Skype expects to be operating at full capacity. The progress they have made in getting their service entirely back online, however, has been positive and prompt.
