WiBro, a variant of the WiMax wireless internet standard, has been approved as a global standard by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), according to Korean government sources quoted in South Korea media.

The WiBro technology, which is designed to provide wireless broadband internet connections to mobile users, was developed by the Korean government and local companies such as Samsung and PosData.

The ITU formally accepted technologies underlying WiBro as international standards for third-generation mobile telecoms at a meeting in Geneva late last week, the reports said.

WiBro is Korea's name for a mobile version of the WiMax wireless internet technology.

ITU announcements do not appear to mention WiBro by name, but instead refer to acceptance of technology related to the Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access transmission protocol, which underlies WiBro and WiMax.

"It is a milestone in the history of Korea's telecoms technology and will help us maintain the front position in the global race for next-generation mobile technologies," Song Yoo-jong, a Korean government official, told the Korea Herald.

ITU approval could give a much needed boost to WiBro, which has so far reached less than half its target of 200,000 Korean users in 2007, despite huge investment.

At a WiMax seminar in Taipei last week, senior executives at D-Link predicted that WiMax products would break into the mass market in 2009.

WiBro will grow rapidly to become a $41.4bn worldwide business by 2012, researchers from Korea's government-funded Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute forecast.

WiBro operates in a similar manner to common Wi-Fi wireless networks, but has much greater range and operates at far higher speeds.

A single WiBro base station can serve an area as large as several square kilometers. The network typically offers connected users speeds of between 1Mbps and 3Mbps, its backers claim.

Unlike Wi-Fi, WiBro is designed to work well even when users are moving at high speed in vehicles, and also provides almost instant handover between neighbouring base stations as the user moves around.