The wireless local area network (Lan) market will double its 2002 value to be worth over $1.3bn by 2006, boding well for vendors and resellers.

According to predictions from analyst Datamonitor, sales in the Asia-Pacific region will grow the fastest, followed by the US and European markets.

But big opportunities still exist for resellers in the UK.

"Vendors will see channel partners as a more realistic way of getting wireless Lan products to market," said Tim Gowers, Datamonitor senior analyst and the author of the Enterprise Wireless Lan report.

Increased productivity, return on investment and asset management will drive this growth in spending, with wireless Lans being used to cut the cost of office moves and cut voice call costs through voice over wireless Lan.

"The increasing acceptance of 802.11 security standards means a lot of enterprises will include wireless capabilities as standard as they upgrade their laptops," added Gower.

"Even if they haven't necessarily already got wireless functionality, they will take it on to avoid device issues in the future."

The Datamonitor report predicts that the convergence of voice and data networks will also boost the value of wireless Lans deployed within enterprises for accessing corporate network resources with laptops and PDAs.

Nathan Marke, marketing director at networking reseller Prime Business Solutions, said: "We have been seeing a big uptake in wireless Lans as standard during the last 12 months. The technology is becoming ubiquitous, but is best sold with a vertical focus."

Education, healthcare and financial services are seen as big markets by Datamonitor for wireless Lan technology.