iBlast, founded in 1999, taps the digital television bandwidth that goes largely unused in most major cities to deliver content to PCs at speeds faster than 19 megabits per second. By comparison, a cable connection runs at about 1 megabit per second.

Starting on July 25 in Los Angeles, iBlast Games will offer users as much as four gigabytes of data every month at service fees of $4.99 to $9.99 per month. The hardware will cost $99 to $199, including a digital television antenna and a receiver, available either as an add-in card or as an external USB device.

"Games will be the first of what we think will be many services," Dan Kendall, vice president of network distribution for iBlast, told Reuters on Thursday. "We have the capacity to send hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands, of files a day."

Other offerings after games are expected to include Japanese "anime" cartoons, and a joint venture to deliver Hindu-language programming and sports.

OTHER DATACASTERS HAVE FAILED

The company was one of many to launch in the last few years that aimed to utilize various bits of unused broadcast and satellite spectrum for ultra-high speed, one-way data services, including movies, television shows, and software packages.

Many of those, like Geocast, have since failed, and Kendall admitted that iBlast has moved slower on its plans than expected, in part because of the collapse of the Internet bubble and in part because of the difficulty of setting up such a network.

However, Kendall said all of the company's partners have remained on board, including the television arms of Gannett Co. Inc., the Washington Post Co. and Emmis Communications Corp.

In many cities, those companies have analog stations that also operate digital broadcasts, though the slow adoption of digital televisions has meant that those signals go largely unseen and can be used for other purposes, like data.

Among the game publishers working with the company are Infogrames Entertainment, Eidos and 3D Groove, the company said.

For the moment, iBlast will only support Windows PCs, though he said support for the open-source Linux operating system and Apple Computer Inc's Macintosh systems would be possible.

After Los Angeles, iBlast plans to roll out its service in Atlanta and Washington and hopes to be in seven cities by the end of the year

The U.S. video game industry surpassed $9 billion in hardware and software sales last year, a figure expected to rise this year as video gaming becomes more mainstream.