TEST? WHAT TEST?

According to the Tuesday (9/26) Wall Street Journal, AOL had held compatibility tests to allow users of its Instant Messaging (AIM) software to sign on to its separate ICQ message network. The tests contradict arguments AOL made with regulators regarding its proposed merger with Time Warner.

AOL spokesperson Tricia Primrose said that engineers simply conducted a short-lived test to see how AIM software could be used to connect ICQ users. "This was an eight-month-old test... designed to study some of the technical issues involved in instant messaging. It doesn't allow for interoperability," Primrose said. "Rest assured that ICQ will not interoperate with AIM ahead of other instant messaging systems."

Primrose said that at no time during its software test were the AOL Instant Messaging and ICQ networks linked. The event was never publicized and only those users who ignored standard practice and tried to sign on to ICQ with AIM software would even have become aware of the test, Primrose said.

Competitors who claim AOL has a monopoly on instant messaging relished the report. While AOL maintains its system is not compatible with other systems, rivals have asked the government to intervene, and possibly persuade the company to open up its systems.

ICAST CEO and co-founder of instant-message rival FreeIM Margaret Heffernan issued a statement in response to the Wall Street Journal report. "The fact that AOL has established virtual interoperability between its 138 million AIM and ICQ members completely undermines AOL's argument to government officials stressing the technical infeasibility of open communications," Heffernan said. "AOL's attempts to keep this information hidden is just one more example of its dominance of the market and its attempts to keep its walls around its users."