This trend has the online travel agencies bracing for the possibility that the portals could one day evolve into full-fledged competitors.

At the end of the two-year deal, the companies could become full-fledged competitors.

And for all its potential, Windows NT is still not widely considered a full-fledged competitor for the market-leading Netware network software from Novell.

Mr. Kiernan said that with an investment of $100 million, SBC could be a full-fledged competitor in long-distance service in less than a year.

But the combination of Government support and the country's technological and financial strengths means Japan could be a full-fledged competitor within a decade or two.

The new service could be a full-fledged competitor to cable.

There's not much to say except that Apple has improved on what was already a capable video solution, making it a full-fledged competitor for bulkier point-and-shoots or dedicated camcorders.

But when the company said it needed $12 million from each network to become a full-fledged competitor, the deal collapsed.

Arbitron has ambitions to expand the service into a full-fledged competitor to Nielsen.

The biggest of the coming PCS licenses will offer enough capacity, or "band width," on the airwaves to start at least three full-fledged competitors to today's cellular telephone networks.