As a result, a user could not call other Skype users despite being connected.

Without making any official disclosure about how many of its 300 million registered users were affected by the glitch, Skype said in its Monday tweet: “We’re pleased to say we’ve found and are now rectifying the Skype problem you may have had today”.

Skype users around the globe reported the problem, especially in the United Kingdom, United States, Japan, and Australia.

Voice and video calling service Skype has said its services have now returned to normal after a 15 hour outage yesterday. The problem with the service had impacted a lot of users that heavily rely on Skype to communicate around the world. “Affected users will not be able to change their status, their contacts will all show as offline and they will be unable to start Skype calls to them”.

Around 12 noon EST, Skype confirmed that it has figured out the problem, and is working on resolving the issue.

Skype users are reporting disruptions to their service as the Microsoft-owned messaging platform is hit by a global outage. “We apologise for any inconvenience and will keep our users updated”. However, the consumer appeal of free worldwide calling has continued to draw huge user numbers.

Skype: A Service We Can’t Live Without?

Skype suffered sporadic high-profile failures before Microsoft bought it, raising questions about whether its peer-to-peer networking technology was capable of handling the massive volume of calls it attracted. The annual Mobile World Congress hosts some of the wold’s largest communication companies, with many unveiling their latest phones and wearables gadgets. Microsoft reported that everyones contacts would appear offline, but that instant messages would still get through.