September 10, 1999 Web posted at: 3:05 p.m. EDT (1905 GMT) by Elinor Mills Abreu

From...

MESSAGE BOARDS: Instant messaging wars

(IDG) -- The instant messaging software used by Freeserve subscribers will be interoperable with America Online's software. However, AOL says it will block access so that users of the two Internet services will not be able to communicate.

The U.K. ISP Freeserve this week announced that it is licensing instant messaging software from Tribal Voice that works with other messaging platforms, including AOL's Instant Messenger and ICQ as well as Microsoft's MSN Messenger Service.

But AOL is taking a hard-line stance on interoperability, demanding that other companies make agreements with the company or it will block access to its instant messenger servers.

"We will block anyone who attempts unauthorized access to our servers," says AOL spokeswoman Tricia Primrose, adding that Tribal Voice doesn't have an agreement with AOL "to preserve the security and privacy of our members."

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Tribal Voice reportedly says it has tried to contact AOL to work with it on this issue. Primrose says she is unaware of any attempts by the company to do so.

The instant messaging conflict started when Microsoft released its MSN Messenger Service in June and announced that it would interoperate with AOL's software. Since then AOL has blocked Microsoft's repeated attempts to allow the two products to communicate. AOL also has blocked other companies' software.

AOL allows messaging software from Apple and ISPs and MindSpring, among others, to interoperate with its messaging software.