America Online cut a deal with Verizon Wireless Friday, the latest in a string of agreements with top U.S. cell phone carriers to offer AOL content and its popular instant messenger program on cell phones. Verizon Wireless will offer AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) for an as-yet-undetermined monthly fee by the year's end, a Verizon Wireless spokesman said. Verizon Wireless, the nation�s largest wireless provider, also plans to add a link to AOL content starting now. This would put services like MapQuest and movie information from Moviefone--onto a cell phone's "deck," the initial list of menu choices that a cell phone user sees when firing up a cell phone.

AOL now has deals with five of the six top wireless carriers for to either give prominent placement on the phone's deck--prime real estate on the cell phone's tiny screen--or to sell the AIM service separately. The lone exception is Cingular Wireless. An AOL spokeswoman declined to comment on whether the company is in talks with Cingular Wireless about reaching a similar deal. A Cingular Wireless spokesman didn't return a call for comment.