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SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- If Intel Corp. has its way, a new age of wireless data transfer will soon be here.

The company recently announced its Mobile Data Initiative (MDI), a cross-industry effort to increase the acceptance of wireless communications technology.

"There's been stuff cooking for a while," says Peter Mueller, director of mobile data for Ericsson Communications Canada -- an MDI member. "Intel's initiative is a big push in the direction that we who've been doing mobile data for the last six or seven years have been pushing -- standards, ability or efforts to make it easy for any user to get up and going with mobile data rapidly."

Intel's plan for MDI centres around PC notebooks and the new generation of digital cellular phones -- by linking the two, the company hopes to revolutionize data transfer by allowing users to do so anytime, anywhere. Links between portable PCs and cell phones have existed for years, but have always been based on a cellular analog platform that has some reliability and security problems. Mobile data transfer has consequently not yet caught on in popularity.

That's where companies like Ericsson Communications Canada and Nokia Products Ltd. come in. The duo has been developing digital cellular technology -- a breakthrough that will make mobile data transfer much easier.

"Historically, data transfer over analog cellular telephony has been a royal pain.," says Mueller. "With digital telephony, data transfer becomes a lot easier, a lot more reliable and a little bit faster. And, over the next two years, a lot faster."

Intel's plan began in Europe last year where it tried out mobile data transfer on the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network, a digital mobile phone standard that services 109 countries, or 25 per cent of the world's population outside North America. The Mobile Data Initiative is bringing GSM standards to North America and, with a number of cross-industry companies working together, should give mobile data transfer the kick in the pants it needs.

Toshiba and IBM are creating notebooks incorporating high-performance Intel mobile processors, while Microsoft is working to integrate Windows with the required services, hardware devices and software drivers needed to make the technology work smoothly.

But even so, it could be a while before mobile data transfer catches on. Current cellular baud rates are only at 9600 -- too slow to surf the Internet. Mueller adds that "wireless is always going to lag what's capable on copper wire." But he says that bandwidth of 64-Kbps should be available in two to two-and-a-half years.

"Wireless data is really taking off right now, from a standpoint of demand, applications and ease of use and coverage," he says. "Where it's taking off right now is with the folks who really need it, and are willing to pay for it and go through one or two headaches."