The company unveiled support for the WAP and WML standards, to be included in its latest browser, Opera for Windows 4.0 Beta 4.

WAP, or Wireless Application Protocol, gives access to sites written in Wireless Mark-up Language (WML), a pared-down version of HTML simple enough for devices like Wireless Internet-equipped digital phones to process.

With wireless access gaining popularity many WAP-WML sites have begun popping up on the Internet, but most browsers cannot access them.

"Opera 4.0 gives Web users access to WAP services, opening up a whole new frontier for the entire WAP industry," says Hakon Wium Lie, chief technology officer, Opera Software. "Opera's formatting engine is very fast and flexible."

Opera said the new browser includes the following features: e-mail, faster rendering speed, small size, low resource requirements, plug-in support, standards-compliance, 128-bit encryption, TLS, SSL 2 and 3, CSS1, CSS2, XML, HTML 4.0, HTTP1.1, WML, ECMAScript and JavaScript 1.3.

Jon S. von Tetzchner, chief executive officer of Opera Software, said part of Opera's vision is to make the Internet accessible to all, and the ability to surf WAP-WML sites is part of that.