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What Americans do when they can't do SMS texting ...

A good indication of just how far America is from universal GSM coverage is provided by the announcement of a deal between Nextel and AOL, giving wireless access to "instant messaging."

Instant messaging is only now starting to make it into European and world GSM phones, because of licensing and fee-collection issues; but it's very big for both Microsoft and AOL on the desktop.

In a deal revealed by Newsbytes, AOL has signed up with Nextel - wireless phone operator - to carry AOL's own Instant Messenger to (and from) its phone customers.

This makes AOL the equivalent of the SMS king of America, as it already has the bulk of the instant messenger (IM) customers, with over 150 million reported users. Its biggest rival, Microsoft, is currently duelling with AOL over ways of restricting IM messages to its own MSN network, while providing access to AOL users; while AOL is doing much the same thing.