PHILADELPHIA -- Philadelphia is on track to become the first major wireless city, with all 135 square miles to be equipped for high-speed wireless Internet access by the summer of 2006, a city spokeswoman said.

"We've gotten worldwide interest in this project," city chief information officer Dianah Neff said yesterday at a technology summit.

While smaller communities such as Corpus Christi, Texas, and Chaska, Minn., already allow residents, visitors and businesses to get online anywhere from laptop computers and other portable devices using Wi-Fi connections, Philadelphia would be the first major city to do so, she said.

Some indoor and outdoor areas of Philadelphia already have Wi-Fi access, including the Convention Center, Reading Terminal, Love Park and Rittenhouse Square.

The project started as a way to make city government more efficient, for instance by allowing real estate appraisers to input data into a portable device from various sites, but the scope has been widened to include low-income communities, Neff said.

City officials have yet to determine how it will pay the estimated $10 million cost, which will include installing hardware on light poles and providing low-cost computers for poorer residents. Officials say it will cost about $1.5 million to run the city's Wi-Fi network.

A business plan for the project is to be presented to Mayor John F. Street on Dec. 10, and contracts will go out for bids in February.