Skype VoIP service temporarily offline

Skype’s Internet phone service has been offline today because of a software problem. Skype hopes the problem will be resolved within 12 to 24 hours.

Skype users have been experiencing problems logging on to their accounts in several locations across the world, including the United States, Europe, South Africa and Brazil. They have also been unable to receive phone services.

Skype has 171 million registered users and is owned by EBay Inc. The company hasn’t revealed how many customers have been affected by the outage.

The company has been advising users to leave their Skype clients running so they can be logged in when the problem is resolved.

Skype has also temporarily stopped downloads of its software for new customers.