When Will Skype Be Back Online Today?

So, all of you folks out there who use Skype on a daily basis, all the time for chatting and video chatting and calling and all that good stuff, you probably already know that Skype is suffering from a global service outage today. This outage started earlier today, and starting at 3:30 PM ET, the service was on its way back up, the return to full normalcy possibly several hours from now. Skype noted that service was already on its way back to full, but that indeed, several hours would be in play before the entire system was back online.

This outage is (was) affecting the United States, Asia, and Europe, Twitter being aflutter with complaints and crazy talk about how the world was ending today. The cause of this outage is still being investigated, and Google Voice, we must simply assume, is receiving a jump in visitors. Again that's an assumption, but since they now also offer free calls across the USA through 2011, heck, what's up? That's what they're saying.

[Via Reuters]