In an effort to turn ordinary phone lines into high-speed Internet pipelines, giants of the personal computer industry are teaming up with the US's largest telephone companies to hasten the arrival of cheap, high-bandwidth communications.

Intel, Microsoft, Compaq Computer and others are planning to unveil the joint effort with telecommunications companies next week at a trade show in Washington, DC.

Computer and telecom executives cautioned that the effort is fraught with technical and legal obstacles. But it could mark the beginning of a new era in telecommunications if it succeeds in delivering high-speed Internet access to the masses at prices expected to be about $40 (£29) a month, a fraction of what such services now cost.

It could also dramatically alter a competitive landscape in which phone companies and their antiquated copper lines seemed to be losing out to cable television, wireless, and satellite services, in the race to become the primary conduit of the Information Age.