Do You Want Wi-Fi’s With That?

McDonald’s Corp. (Oak Brook, Ill.) has selected Wayport Inc. (Austin, Texas) as the sole provider of wireless Internet access in thousands of McDonald’s restaurants.

Under the agreement, which followed a nine-month test in hundreds of McDonald’s location, Wayport will expand its service to as many as 3000 restaurants by the end of the year, charging $2.95 for two hours of access.

Wayport ceo Dave Vucina said that eventually Wayport would offer wireless access in more than 13,000 McDonald’s locations. Since 2003, Wayport had been offering wireless Internet connections in about 300 McDonald’s restaurants as part of the test program, competing against Cometa Networks Inc. (Schaumburg, Ill.) and Toshiba America Inc. (New York).

Wayport, which has Wi-Fi spots in 700 hotels and 12 airports, said its service would offer connection speeds comparable to the high-speed connections found at home. Wayport will first roll out the service in McDonald’s locations in Chicago, New York and Seattle, adding other cities later this year.