Last Thursday, little bits of information started slipping out that the FCC was demanding AOL open up its instant messaging software as a precursor to allowing the Time Warner merger to go through. We were glad of it, not only because that without this measure AOL/Time Warner would be just too powerful but also because the FCC wasn't being pushed around.

However, we've had two reports from readers now that AOL's IM server wasn't working at the weekend. Is it perhaps possible that there was some back-end work going on, perhaps some anti-Microsoft equipment being pulled out? Oh what idle speculation.

Mind you, if this week sees a sudden announcement and the inter-communication of other IM systems, we will be shouting "I told you so". ®

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