Chinatown businesses, residents and visitors soon will be able to surf the Internet wirelessly for free.

Honolulu officials expect to launch the service this summer in partnership with Internet service provider EarthLink. Atlanta-based EarthLink Inc. is paying to install and run the network for one year. The project was originally slated to begin last summer. However, legal and bureaucratic hurdles delayed the launch.

Securing permission to install needed equipment required working with Hawaiian Electric, the state Department of Transportation, the state Public Utilities Commission and other groups, said Gordon Bruce, director of the city Department of Information Technology.

"We knew we were going to have to jump through hoops," he said. "We learned a lot about what it takes as far as the legal and agency processes that we had to go through."

Once up and completely running, the network will provide Internet access across a 27-block area ranging from North Beretania Street to North Nimitz Highway, and from Fort Street Mall to the Nu'uanu Stream. Chinatown was chosen because it is an area targeted for redevelopment by Mayor Mufi Hannemann.

Equipment needed to provide the service, including 19 wireless antennas, is on order and should be installed soon, Bruce said. The antennas will be installed on light poles and stoplights. Among the myriad of legal questions that needed to be addressed was who is liable if an antenna falls and injures someone, Bruce said.

So who's to blame if that happens? "I'm not going to tell you," Bruce said. "We also learned we don't have to disclose that."

Service could begin as soon as mid-June. Just how many people will use the free service remains to be seen. It's also unclear whether the city will continue to run the service once EarthLink's one-year project is completed.

"We don't want to be in a situation similar to other municipalities" that are having to subsidize free wireless Internet service, Bruce said. "We're not going to put money into this."

City "money should be used to build streets and sewers," Bruce said.

Some cities that have implemented similar wireless networks have successfully shifted from a free service to a paying service. Toronto Hydro Telecom Inc., which offered its One Zone wireless product free for a year, now charges $4.99 an hour, $9.99 a day or $29 a month.

Previously announced plans by Hawaiian Electric Co. to use the wireless network to test next-generation utility applications are on hold as the company explores other technologies, said HECO spokeswoman Lynne Unemori.

Reach Sean Hao at shao@honoluluadvertiser.com.