The first mobile phones were available in 1985. Big as a brick, these early devices needed to be used in or near a car that held the battery and aerial.

Coverage was patchy at best and, as a Royal was to find out, it was fairly easy to listen in to others' conversations.

It was another ten years before the mobile phone boom. A combination of reduced size and weight, digital signals that were secure and compatible and handsets priced at competitive levels saw the market mature in just two years.

Wireless networks stand on the edge of a similar boom. The idea of connecting devices in offices without cables has been around for a while but competing standards and return on investment have been hard to pin down.

Now standards are clearer, security has improved to an acceptable level with much of the technology pre-installed and competitively priced and the market is set to expand rapidly.

Gartner, a US research company, estimates 30 per cent of American corporations already have a wireless local area network (LAN) in place, with spending on them increasing by 40 per cent last year.

This year it predicts ten million wireless LAN PC connections will be installed and telecoms advisor Analysys predicts 20 million people will be working on wireless LANs in Western Europe by 2006.

Many use the 802.11b standard developed by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Enginners (also called WiFi) which gives access at about the same speed as regular cables. Bluetooth-based systems can run alongside these to provide connection to your printer, scanner or mobile phone at a range of up to ten metres.

Bluetooth technology provides a low-cost, low-power radio link for mobile devices and for network access points. It offers fast and reliable digital transmissions of both voice and data.

The most important development is the companies that provide the hardware and software are in agreement about the standards.

So, when's the right time to invest in a wireless network, now or wait for the technology to mature further? While the technology is evolving, the current standards are going to be around for at least the next two years and they already offer the kind of speed and reliability most users need.

Early adopters will see the advantage immediately. Equipment manufacturers have integrated this technology into PC models available today.

Many laptops in the IBM range already have a 802.11b wireless antenna embedded into the casing and incorporate Bluetooth functionality.

As a result, the machines can be set up to automatically use Bluetooth for selected printers and 802.11b for data traffic without the user being aware of the technologies used.

So how do you get started? For bigger and more complex installations, it may be better to talk to a major systems company or direct to a vendor like IBM, whose global services team can integrate wireless into a wider e-business infrastructure. Many quality business computer resellers and systems integrators are starting to specialise in wireless connectivity, as an extension to their skills in Microsoft or Novell LANs.

The systems are relatively easy to install and these companies offer the benefit of local advice and support.

The real business benefits and return on investment are to be measured primarily by increased productivity and cost-savings through avoiding cable installation.

Many companies with wireless networks are already reporting productivity gains.

It is estimated being connected in a wireless environment allows the average worker to increase efficiency by up to 20 per cent.

It is time to start thinking seriously about wireless networks for your company.

Providing security issues are addressed from the outset, the return on investment should speak for itself.