23-Dec-2010 15:03

Skype - Would you rely on them any longer?

Skype global blackout continues after network fault..

Millions of people around the globe continue to be affected by an outage at the free internet phone service Skype.
The firm said engineers were working to fix the problem which first started at around 2030 GMT on 22 December.

Skype said the fault had been caused by a "software issue" on critical parts of its network.

"We take outages like this really seriously and apologise for the inconvenience," Skype chief Tony Bates told BBC News.

In a blog post, the firm said that people were gradually coming back online.

"Millions of you are already reporting that you can now sign in to Skype normally, and we estimate that there are already almost 5 million people online," it read.

"As a guide, this is around 30% of what we'd expect at this time of day - and that number is increasing all the time."
Mr Bates estimated that Skype was losing around 10 million calls, when the problem first occurred.

BBC reader Igor Hnatko, who runs an outsourcing company in Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia, said his firm had been "severely affected" by the outage.

"It had made me realise to what extent my business is dependent on VOIP technology and Skype as a solution to keeping in touch with clients, and employees," he said.
"Usually, Skype service is of a very high standard, but today, it has been non-existent."

He said his employees had been "unable to log into Skype at all".

"We do accounting and tax for Australian accounting firms here in Kuala Lumpur and during this crucial period in the run-up to the holidays, when our capacity is 100% taken up, we have experienced Skype collapse, which is disappointing to say the least.

"We have started looking at some alternatives, but Skype product has been a part of our business for the last five years, and having to switch to an alternative provider would be hard, but we will have to have that as a back-up plan following this incident."

Om Malik, an industry commentator and editor of the Gigaom.com website, echoed his statements.

"Skype is one of the key applications of the modern web," he wrote.

"It is already a hit with consumers, and over the past few years it has become part of the economic fabric for startups and small businesses around the world. I am not sure we can comprehend the productivity cost of this outage.

"The outage comes at a time when Skype is starting to ask larger corporations for their business. If I am a big business, I would be extremely cautious about adopting Skype for business, especially in light of this current outage," added Mr Malik.

Would you rely on them?