The adoption of wide-area wireless technology Wimax as a global standard was welcomed today as "a great step forward" by the company rolling the technology out in Britain.

The International Telecommunications Union agreed late last week to include the technology in the IMT-2000 standard, which includes GSM and 3G cellular technologies.

Some reports confusingly refer to Wimax as 3G but it is sometimes described as a 4G technology.

Freedom4, formerly known as Pipex Wireless, announced last month that it is to offer Wimax services in Manchester as the first step of a rollout to other UK cities, spreading out in the countryside where there is sufficient demand.

The company, a joint venture with Intel, owns spectrum at around 3.6GHz that is currently licensed only for fixed Wimax, though in practice is offers local mobility. Ofcom is expect to approve mobile use of the spectrum.

The ITU approval could increase competition for a spectrum around 2.5GHz that will be auctioned in the UK next year.

Graham Currier, business development director for Freedom4, said: "It is very good news. The global ecosystem for Wimax has been slowly building up but this will give it more momentum... It's a great step forward."

Intel stands to be a big winner from the ITU approval. It has a stake in Wimax vendors like Freedom4 in several countries, and it plans to support the technology in notebooks as standard from next year.