Skype users are flooding Twitter with reports of Skype service being down. Image: Flickr / philwolff / CC-BY-SA
The Skype service is used by millions around the world as a way to connect. Usually Skype clocks in about 20 to 21 million users a day. Currently, Skype has about 12 million users, and social networks are abuzz with reports of Skype being down.
Skype down for some, not others
The Skype service has been reported as down for many users on Wednesday morning. Though spot-tests are showing that, for the most part, Skype is working, it isn’t working all the time. Some users aren’t able to log in, others are having problems with crashing apps. The Skype team has said only one thing about it:
Some of you may have problems signing in to Skype – we’re investigating, and we’re sorry for the disruption to your conversations.
The meteoric growth of Skype
The reports that Skype is down are raising memories of the 2007 Skype outage. In 2007, the service went down for about 24 hours. Despite these hiccups, the company has continued to grow. Skype currently reports about 25 million users. These 25 million users tend to use Skype on a regular basis for everything from personal conversations to on-camera interviews for news. Skype has run into problems because of the high amount of bandwidth it requires and has been banned by many organizations because of this bandwidth hog tendencies.
Skype downtime may last hours
The fact that Skype is down may encourage some people to move to other Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services. About one hour after the original report of Skype being down, the Skype team posted to their Twitter:
Our engineers and site operations team are working non-stop to get things back to normal – thanks for your continued patience.
Are you a Skype user? Is Skype down for you? What problems are you encountering?
You know what's really weird? I started looking up these articles because I couldn't connect to Skype and everything else seemed to be working. Now, I'm connected again, but I seem to be the only one. None of my friends are online and there are always a few. The articles are still showing it's down, the links you say are down still are. So, I'm the only one that is currently connected. That makes me feel special. I have Skype all to myself.
I guess I spoke too soon, because I'm back down again with the rest of them. But, it WAS fun being the only up for an hour.
You know what’s really weird? I started looking up these articles because I couldn’t connect to Skype and everything else seemed to be working. Now, I’m connected again, but I seem to be the only one. None of my friends are online and there are always a few. The articles are still showing it’s down, the links you say are down still are. So, I’m the only one that is currently connected. That makes me feel special. I have Skype all to myself.
Its down here in Clearwater FL. Our whole company uses it daily to converse and share on projects. We actually have to get out of our seats now to talk to soeone. COME ON SKYPE…. hurry back. My food coma is making me too tired to actually get up!