  We consider a prescription for introducing deformed dispersion relations in
the bosonic string action. We find that in a subset of such theories it remains
true that the embedding coordinates propagate linearly on the worldsheet. While
both the string modes and the center of mass propagate with deformed dispersion
relations, the speed of light remains energy independent. We consider the
canonical quantization of these strings, and find that it is possible to choose
theories so that ghost modes still decouple, as usual. However the Virasoro
algebra now exhibits an energy dependent central charge. We also find that
there are examples where the tachyon is eliminated from the spectrum of the
free bosonic string.
