Skype Service Outage Caused by Software Problems

Associated PressAugust 16, 2007 11:52 a.m.

Skype, the popular program that lets its users make long-distance calls using their computers, said Thursday that software problems have left many of its millions of users without service world-wide.

It was not immediately clear how many users were affected, but Skype users in Colombia, Brazil, Germany, Finland and the U.S. reported difficulties logging on.

The company, a division of online auctioneer eBay Inc., said on its Web site many users cannot log on to the free service. "Our engineering team has determined that it's a software issue," according to a site maintained by Skype. "We expect this to be resolved within 12 to 24 hours."
Skype urged users to allow the program to continue running and that they would automatically be logged on when the problem is resolved.

Skype uses peer-to-peer technology to connect phone calls, instant messages and videos between its users. It runs on a variety of operating systems, including Windows, Mac OS X, PocketPC and Linux. Skype users can also use the program to connect to cellphones and traditional land-line telephones.

The company was acquired by eBay in October 2005 for about $2.1 billion.
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