  The high-energy behaviour of the total cross section for highly virtual
photons, as predicted by the BFKL equation at next-to-leading order (NLO) in
QCD, is discussed. The NLO BFKL predictions, improved by the BLM optimal scale
setting, are in good agreement with recent OPAL and L3 data at CERN LEP2. NLO
BFKL predictions for future linear colliders are presented.
