3:52 p.m. - FARGO-- Portable computer users at this city's downtown public library will be able to access the Internet for free early next year, officials said.

"It's something we've seen an increased demand for," said Charles Pace, the library's director. "I look at it as providing another avenue of service."

A technology upgrade will make the library a "hot spot" of wireless Internet connections for people with laptop computers and personal digital assistants.

Pace hopes to start by creating a hot spot at the downtown library that eventually will include the perimeter of the building. He envisions people sitting in the mall area between the Fargo Civic Center and the library on a nice day, working on their computers.

Some cities have turned themselves into large "Wi-Fi," or wireless fidelity, networks and offered free or low-cost wireless Internet access.

Chaska, Minn., charges subscribers $15.99 per month to access the service. So far, about 2,000 people have subscribed, said Bradley Mayer, the city's information systems manager. Officials in Philadelphia are proposing a similar project, but it is being opposed by telecommunications companies.

The wireless concept is something the Grand Forks library already has implemented, although that city doesn't use it as liberally as Fargo officials plan to.

David Haney, the Grand Forks library computer manager, said officials there decided to regulate the system and only allow a handful of approved users to log on.

When access is unlimited, the number of users can quickly eat up the bandwidth and create problems for anyone else trying to use the Internet, Haney said. In addition, the Grand Forks library is near some apartment buildings, and it's possible for residents to pick up the radio signals and tap into the system without permission, he said.

But creating a system to monitor wireless access at the Fargo library could be tough to manage, said Ron Gronneberg, Fargo's information systems manager. The library probably would only address this issue if problems pop up and it becomes necessary, he said.

The library will tap into its 2005 technology budget to install the wireless system. Gronneberg expects it to cost less than $2,000.