The new PlayStation Home patch is now available to download, but it’s not what we expected. The patch is primarily to solve connection issues some gamers are experiencing when trying to connect to the PlayStation Home servers. As a result, voice chat has been disabled to take some load of the servers. Until the service is enabled again, you will have to use text chat or "phone friend" to communicate. Abigail Murphy, PR Manager for PlayStation Network, recommends using the Wireless Keypad for PLAYSTATION 3 or any USB or Bluetooth-enabled keyboard.
Once the chat service is back online, the PlayStation.Blog will be updated with the latest information. Until then, why not download the new patch and try connecting to the servers to see if you can get online.