Hotmail hit by delays

MSN Hotmail has suffered from technical glitches since Tuesday, causing a "small percentage" of users to experience delays in receiving mail, the company confirmed today.

Users have suffered "intermittent deferrals, refusals, and larger than normal queues" because of a routine upgrade to server computers that store email, according to Hotmail. The company would not elaborate or discuss what caused the problems to persist.

Hotmail solved its difficulties as of this morning, according to Hotmail product manager Laura Norman. "It was not a pervasive issue by any stretch," Norman said. "It's not clear how many people were affected and for how long."

This week's problems come on top of similar problems the company was having earlier this month.

Norman would not comment on how many Hotmail users were affected, but maintained the number was a tiny fraction of its entire user base. The problems were not confined to any geographic location, she added.