'Out of order'

eBay's Skype went down early yesterday and up to this point (8:30 AM Eastern) has not yet been fixed.

The service, comprised of online chat, video and the ability to make long-distance calls online via VoIP, attributed the downtime to a "software issue."

It is unclear how many users have been affected, but The Globe and Mail reports clients in Colombia, Brazil, Germany, Finland and the United States have difficulty logging in.

Skype manages about 220 million accounts, with anywhere between five to six million users online at once. Its popularity grew first in Europe, where travelers took advantage of its free PC-to-PC calling feature.

In the second half of 2006, the firm offered free calls to landline and mobile phones in an effort to increase its userbase in the US and Canada. Last month, it partnered with Jingle to offer ad-supported 411 to its users.

The company was purchased by eBay in 2005 for $2.6 billion.

The Skype brand is a leading champion in the potential success of VoIP. Having been down around 24 hours now, the popularity, sheer size and brand name behind the service leave a lingering question: how stable are the new media technologies upon which many have grown dependent?