Skype is Offering 20 Free Minutes As Apology for Outage Last Month

Last month, majority of you guys would have noticed that Skype was not functioning due to a service breakdown that prevented users from logging into the application.

As a result, they could not text messages to their recipients or make calls to any individual that were a part of their friends list. None of the engineers at Skype were able provide a concrete explanation as to why the breakdown occurred in the first place other than that they had begun work on it immediately in order to restore it as quickly as possible.

Microsoft later on explained why the breakdown took place:

We released a larger-than-usual configuration change, which some versions of Skype were unable to process correctly therefore disconnecting users from the network. When these users tried to reconnect, heavy traffic was created and some of you were unable to use Skype’s free services, including messaging, presence, and contact list management. Others could not sign in or out of Skype altogether, or make calls to landlines or mobile phones. Skype for Business was not impacted.

Irrespective of the issue that had taken place, Skype and its employees must have felt extremely guilty that they were unable to provide service to millions of users. While they did send out an apology note, the company moist probably felt that it was obligated to provide more to its users that a simple ‘sorry’ status.

As a result, Skype will be introducing an offer, where users will be able to make 20 minutes’ worth of free calls. According to Skype, the free calls will be applicable to over 60 landlines and 8 mobile destinations. However, users will only have 7 days to completely take advantage of this offer.

Right now, it’s unclear which users will get the free minutes. There is a possibility it may be limited to premium users or people who used Skype and were unable to. Regardless, if you qualify, you should get an email and get free minutes added to your account.