IM ROLE PLAYING

For a company that has been quietly tip-toeing into the phone business only for the last year, AOL Time Warner has the telco's role of stomping indignation down pat. In a petition submitted last month, the company is seeking relief from the requirement that it make its instant messaging interoperable with other IM clients before being allowed to offer videoconferencing and voice services. AOL, which has launched voice mail service in the last three months, claims it is no longer the dominant provider of IM services, holding somewhere between 50% to 60% of the total market, depending on whose market research you believe. Whether the company has a dominant share, though, is immaterial. Despite proclamations to the contrary, AOL has shown no evidence it wants to cooperate with other IM providers at a time when the dozens of vendors are coming together. Last week, for example, the Presence and Availability Management Forum, which focuses on wireless IM among other issues, merged with Parlay, which focuses on the wireline IM market. The joint group will create a series of specifications allowing IM providers to interoperate. That is, everyone except AOL. The FCC should take a long look at AOL's influence on the market before granting the company the right to ignore one of the central tenets of its merger agreement with Time Warner. Allowing AOL to continue its closed-door policy shuts off a major user group from the wider benefits of what is quickly becoming one of the most interesting technologies. For all the benefits and productivity increases that presence management and IM provide, giving in to AOL's request would be a step in the wrong direction.