Skype fixes page fault bug

Skype has quietly fixed the bug that caused users of its Internet phone software to experience 10,000 page faults per second, but its customer service troubles are continuing.

The company delivered a new release on 12 December, and according to users, the page fault problem seems to be fixed, with user Jamie Watson reporting page faults in a range of five to thirty per second, which is much more manageable. Skype describes the release as a "bugfix", reports Watson.

Skype users with London geographical numbers are still displeased however, as the company is going ahead with its plans to withdraw 0207 SkypeIn numbers, at less than a month's notice, on 20 December.

Skype posted advice yesterday for affected users, and explained that it had no choice but to withdraw the numbers, because it couldn't reach a commercial agreement with the operator from whom it rented them, but users aren't convinced. "Obviously they had made a commercial agreement with the company providing those numbers which they were no longer happy with, but rather than making the effort to work out the problem or at least make a reasonable transition period for their customers, Skype decided to just dump the problem on their customers," said Watson on a ZDNet blog.

Many users have been able to keep their 0207 numbers by moving to a different providers, said Watson: "If a third party was able to come to the rescue of these customers, why could Skype not do so themselves?"