Like up-and-coming Internet access service Wi-Fi, which has become increasingly popular in Asia, Europe and the United States, WiMax also connects users to the Web without a wire.

But at speeds of up to 70 megabits per second -- 35 times faster than a standard broadband Internet connection -- it can hold its own with any landline service.

In addition, WiMax promises unprecedented mobility with a reach of up to 45 kilometers (30 miles) from the next base station, compared to just a few dozen meters (yards) for Wi-Fi.

The new service can thus reach into towns, cities and countries currently excluded from high-speed Internet access such as ADSL, which requires heavy investment to set up a network and has limited reach.

The president of the WiMax Forum industry group and a marketing director at US chip maker Intel, Margaret LaBrecque, said proponents of WiMax were once considered "reckless start-ups".

But she said a standard WiMax system should be established by the fourth quarter of this year, ushering in the first products for the mass market.

Six telecommunications operators -- British Telecom and UK Broadband, Spain's Iberbanda, MVS Net of Mexico, Brazil's Neotec, PCCW in China and India's Reliance Infocomm -- have joined the WiMax Forum.

And two companies at the giant CeBIT technology fair in Hanover, Germany, were already displaying WiMax products.

Israel's Alvarion said it had half a dozen clients for its BreezeMax modules to provide mobile Internet access via WiMax, and that two of those customers were major corporations with annual group sales of more than a billion dollars.

And Canada's Redline Communications said it believes it has gained a year on its competition by bringing out a few WiMax products now.

The marketing director of the Wi-Fi Alliance, Brian Grimm, said WiMax was probably "two years ahead of its time" but he said he did not doubt its potential.

"It would be a great complement to Wi-Fi, which was created to establish a high-speed wireless connection at home or via a hot spot (public connection point) while WiMax would be a replacement for DSL connections over long distances," he said.

Telecommunications companies are keeping a close watch on WiMax.

Some fear it will compete fiercely with broadband online connections and push out of the market next generation UMTS cellular phone services, which also connect to the Internet.

Analyst John Yunker, author of a report on Wi-Fi and WiMax, said he thought WiMax would only take off slowly with the majority of operators, remembering earlier new economy schemes that later fizzled, taking a wait-and-see approach. But Grimm said they would come around in the end, eventually having no choice but to take WiMax seriously.

Wi-Fi, launched three years ago, equips thousands of products and was responsible for 2.5 billion dollars in sales in 2003 at a rate of growth of more than 20 percent annually, underscoring the rampant demand for wireless Internet connections.

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