PAY your bills on the cell phone,surf the Internet on your notebook by the pool or reply to an e-mail message on your PDA as you take the train to work.

For those who frequently need to stay connected on the move, wireless Internet is godsend.

Take Mr Stijn Welkers. The managing director of a software company can now mix business with pleasure thanks to wireless Internet.

"Previously, I had to rush back to the office. Now after my morning ride or after a game of polo, I can sit at the club's lounge or by the pool to check my e-mails, surf the Web and attend to any sales enquiries," he said.

Wireless Internet has also gone mainstream, no longer restricted within the domain of computer geeks or busy professionals like Mr Welkers.

Visit any MacDonald's fast food outlet,and you will see customers chomping on cheeseburger and fries while busy surfing.

Getting connected wirelessly is now easy.

What you need is a wireless-enabled notebook, cell phone or PDA - and there are more of such devices around.

Notebooks like the HP Compaq 8510P,smart phones like the Nokia N65 and the Blackberry 8800, for example, come with built-in wireless Internet connectivity that allows you to surf the Web and check e-mail messages as you get about.

According to Mr Robin Seow, HP's general manager for Personal Systems Group, wireless technology has given customers a new freedom to work, learn and play.

"For customers today, it is all about connectivity - digital, virtual and personal.

The proliferation of (these) hardware has dramatically extended the boundaries of traditional workplaces, making it possible for mobile workers to work as productively and efficiently on the road,as they could in the office.

"With this new found freedom (that next-generation mobility solutions offer),all customers can connect, communicate and be entertained real-time. Increased mobility has also allowed greater flexibility in the way businesses run;students learn; people entertain and users interact," he said.

Gone too are the days when you had to wait in agony as a Web page downloaded ever so slowly on to your screen.

Today, service providers like SingTel offers wireless Internet service, with zippy broadband at speeds of up to 1 megabit per second.

Wireless technology has also gone the distance.

The longest wireless link ever achieved was by the Swedish space agency.It sent data wirelessly to an overhead stratospheric balloon some 310kmaway. This was achieved through some ampliflication of the signals. The longest wireless link without amplification was279 km. The experiment was succesfully done last year in Venezuela by Latin American research institute Wilac.

Closer to home, consumers can also expect better things to come from wireless technology.

Computer chip manufacturers like Intel,for example, recently announced its next-generation Wireless-N that provides802.11A/G/N WLan capability.

According to Mr Patrick Liew, Singapore country manager, Intel technology,Asian users now demand more wireless bandwidth for online gaming, downloading high-definition videos and for supporting premier mobile content such as movie trailers on their cell phones -things the current wireless bandwidth might not be able to provide.

This is the area where Mr Liew says Intel's next generation wireless technology can fill the gap.

"With Intel's next-generation Wireless-N technology, users expect up to five times the performance for downloading and twice the wireless access range," he said.

Apart from a wireless-enabled device,you also need a wireless hotspot (a designated area where you can tap into a wireless infrastructure) to surf the Web.

In Singapore, for example, under the Wireless@SG initiative, the Government will increase the number of public wireless hot spots around the island -from 900 to 5,000 by this year.

Add this to hot spots set up by cafes,fast foods and private clubs, and Singapore will soon be blanketed with such wireless places.

So, road warriors and business travellers can get connected anywhere, anytime around the island, limited only by their devices' battery life.

- The writer is a correspondent/Internet coordinator with Berita Harian.