Here in Beijing we just assumed someone had been up to no good and the Great Firewall had got em, causing colateral damage! Good to know Skype screwed up instead!

"The swiftness with which people switched providers demonstrates the lack of commitment most Skype users had"

Or, it just demonstrates that without the customer-side infrastructure, hardware and line-rental agreements that the telcos have (not to mention the physical difficulty of having multiple landlines in your house), people have no reason to "commit" to a single VOIP/messaging provider, at least in the domestic sphere. I imagine corporate IT departments generate a different sort of inertia though :-)

John

Eventhough i am not calling from Skype to "Real" phones ...just yet...

i must admit that as a voip software excluding the high cpu cycles it consumes its rather good and the servers have never let me down so far.

Judging from prices and competition i d say that Skype is always offering a good bargain on prices and services.

Shit happens to everyone, it happened to skype also, so what? I am incapable of counting the times that other voip software letme down while skype was always there, working as it was intended to be.

The idea that individuals and corporate users take what is essentially a free service infrastructure with paid for add ons for granted and put expectations on that service in the same way as you would put expectations on a Telco company that provides you with a service you pay for is ridiculous! It's inconvenient to say the least when a service like this goes down.

Anyone that has been using Skype as an essential part of their work is asking for trouble.. It's useful, but it's free, therefore should be treated with caution.. The weather is free, but I don't expect it to be sunny just because I want to make a barbeque! We take precautions and have backup plans and in the UK, usually everyone ends up eating indoors (especially this summer!) So why do people not have backup plans for when Skype goes down.. It's just pure stupidity not to!

...because they never sent me the e-mail.

Maybe I should start using Gizmo, they have much better call-in number choices anyway

The world of telco is due another shakeup. Voip continues to let itself down; the user base is growing faster than the backbone, not to mention contention from video. Give me a PSTN or GSM or CDMA network any day. Just let me drive down the cost.

I use Skype in France to contact my customers in UK in place of using landline.

No e mail of apology or any other expanation has been received from Skype

Luckily I had forseen this eventuality and have 2 other VOIP programs installed for backup use.

I now find out my company logo and profile data have disapeared so other users can't see me properly and it needs to be set up again.

I am being loyal to Skype because overall they have provided good service and unlike France Telecom don't tell you to "go away" because you can't speak fluent technical French over the phone.

Your line "" In a mail sent out to all Skype subscribers..... "" made me smile. I was not aware of this. Maybe mine is in the post............