Skype outage makes for a quiet working day

Skype logoSkype has suffered an outage today, that still continues, meaning that web workers around the globe, like myself, have had an unusually quiet day — with far fewer IM interruptions but also a strange kind of isolation. What’s also made today standout is that in all the time that I’ve been a Skype user, I don’t remember it ever going down. Sure there has been poor connections and some odd behavior, where contacts disappear and reappear intermittently for no apparent reason, but never has the service been totally unavailable. As much as today’s outage has been an inconvenience, the fact that it’s been so noticeable is perhaps testament to Skype’s overall robustness.

In a poll we ran during our launch week here at last100, we asked ‘Can Skype replace your landline?‘, noting that, for business at least, the peer-to-peer technology on which Skype is based, might not be ready for prime time.

Can Skype replace your landline?

Of the 323 people who voted, 49% said it was good enough for social life but not business. While 20% said Skype had never let them down. Until today I was more or less in the latter camp.

A statement on the company’s site says that we can expect full service to resume in 12 – 24 hours. That’s a long time to put your business on hold.

last100 is edited by Steve O'Hear. Aside from founding last100, Steve is co-founder and CEO of Beepl and a freelance journalist who has written for numerous publications, including TechCrunch, The Guardian, ZDNet, ReadWriteWeb and Macworld, and also wrote and directed the Silicon Valley documentary, In Search of the Valley. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.

5 Responses to “Skype outage makes for a quiet working day”

  1. John Leeman says:

    Just a few days after US Congress OK’s the Executive Branch wire tapping bill, Skype goes down…. MMMM….

    I would hate to think that the US Government is now taking over the internet…..

  2. Steve O'Hear (editor) says:

    @John

    So would I 🙂

  3. Decklane says:

    I’m generally on the dissatisfied side with skype. It’s taking them forever to sort out quality issues and reliability and now this. It seems like all the disadvantages of a peer to peer system with all the disadvantages of a centralized system. Finally, add to that all the disadvantages of a completely proprietary system and protocol.
    I would jump ship the moment a competitor gets enough momentum.

  4. David Mackey says:

    I have to agree, this outage is concerning for business users…But, think of a traditional PBX which operates over a T1. Oftentimes these have overflow copper lines in case of outages.

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