Free Wi-Fi, covering an area of 100 square kilometers, will be available to Internet users in Beijing during the Olympic Games this summer. Service provider, China Communications, expects to expand the range of the project to cover the whole city and some of the peripheral areas by the year 2010. The service will allow Wi-Fi enabled laptop and mobile phone users to access the internet from any point within range.

According to report in Xinhua, China’s state news agency, the trial version of Beijing’s wireless broadband internet access was launched on 25 June. This version represents the first phase of the project, which will be expanded gradually until reaching its goal in 2010. During the Olympic Games, internet access will be free of charge, but following that, it is likely to be chargeable. Just how much internet users will have to pay for the service is not yet clear.

Users of games consoles, MP3 players and PDA’s will also be able to enjoy free internet connection within the Wi-Fi range. The range of hot spots – access points to the internet, will overlap in the city, creating a continuous wireless network. Similar projects exist in some other cities around the world. Using the momentum created by the games, the Chinese government is forging ahead in many service areas; on the touchy subject of online censorship, the organizing committee of the Beijing Olympics has promised that internet use will be unrestricted by government controls.