Skype is Down UPDATED 5X

Some of Skype users have problems signing – Skype has confirmed the news and sent an apology through their twitter page  and are currently  investigating,

This issue started surfacing about at 6:40 PM GMT 22/12/2010 , at the start it was announced that 8 Million skype users got affected by this outage but news say that all 560 million registered users can't access their accounts, this is a major outage just like the one that occurred in 2007

Last year Skype accounted for 12% of All international calling minutes 

This is a Global Outage and Twitter is going insane, A river of tweets about this issue

The last tweet by Skype engineers thats 45 min ago :

"Our engineers and site operations team are working non-stop to get things back to normal – thanks for your continued patience" 

Will keep you updated..

UPDATE 1> 7:05 PM GMT  New Skype Tweet                

Some insight into Skype downtime today: http://bit.ly/edtjxB – thanks for your continued patience while we return things to normal

UPDATE 2 >7:05 PM GMT  Details of tweet                     

Skype downtime today

Earlier today, we noticed that the number of people online on Skype was falling, which wasn’t typical or expected, so we began to investigate.
Skype isn’t a network like a conventional phone or IM network – instead, it relies on millions of individual connections between computers and phones to keep things up and running. Some of these computers are what we call ‘supernodes’ – they act a bit like phone directories for Skype. If you want to talk to someone, and your Skype app can’t find them immediately (for example, because they’re connecting from a different location or from a different device) your computer or phone will first try to find a supernode to figure out how to reach them.
Under normal circumstances, there are a large number of supernodes available. Unfortunately, today, many of them were taken offline by a problem affecting some versions of Skype. As Skype relies on being able to maintain contact with supernodes, it may appear offline for some of you.
What are we doing to help? Our engineers are creating new ‘mega-supernodes’ as fast as they can, which should gradually return things to normal. This may take a few hours, and we sincerely apologise for the disruption to your conversations. Some features, like group video calling, may take longer to return to normal.
Stay tuned to @skype on Twitter for the latest updates on the situation – and many thanks for your continued patience in the meantime.


UPDATE 3> 08:30 PM GMT                                                
Skype is now gradually returning to normal – we expect it may take several hours for everyone to be able to sign in again, however
UPDATE 4> 08:40 PM GMT                                                
More insight into what happened today – http://bit.ly/fGzJ05 – Skype now returning to normal


UPDATE 5 >6:46 AM GMT  New Tweet                           

Thanks for your continued patience while we get everyone back online – sorry especially to those of you who are still waiting