Minneapolis on Wednesday officially began the process of selecting a company to build and operate a citywide wireless network, becoming the latest major city to embark on providing affordable Internet access to all residents and businesses.

The city expects between 20 and 30 companies, including Qwest Communications International Inc., Minnesota's largest telephone company, and Time Warner Inc., to answer its request for proposals. A contract for the network, estimated to cost from $15 million to $20 million, is expected to be signed later this year.

Among Minneapolis's requirements is that the private network, which would include fixed-wired Internet access, would be available to anyone who wants to use it. The provider also would have to meet service-level requirements for the city, which plans to use the network for communications among all its agencies, including police and fire, and to provide Internet access to its 47 main buildings, such as City Hall, and 300 other facilities.

The city estimates users would pay $18 to $24 a month for wireless broadband access of from 1 megabyte per second to 3 megabytes per second. In addition, the provider, which is guaranteed the city as an anchor customer, would have to be able to offer temporary service to anyone visiting the city.

The city hopes the network will cut its own communications costs by replacing the expensive cellular radio communications used by police, Bill Beck, director of business development for the city's computer operations, said. The city current gets its cellular communications from Sprint Corp.

At the same time, the city wants to provide affordable Internet access to everyone, despite income or size of the business.

"We're going to ensure that the city saves money, while at the same time providing value to our residents and businesses," Beck said.

For Minneapolis visitors, the network would provide single sign-on Internet access anywhere in the 58-square-mile city, avoiding the need to sign up for services separately at the airport, hotels or coffee shops.

Beck insisted that the city was not supporting a monopoly. The network would be privately owned and operated, and other companies are free to build their own wireless or wired networks.

"We're not proposing a monopoly," Beck said. "Our goal is to get the infrastructure up and running to improve service delivery and reduce cost ... the expectation is the network is going to be less costly (for subscribers), but that will be determined by competition, not by a monopoly-type system."

Nevertheless, Time Warner is one Internet service provider that has opposed the project, even suggesting that it could file a lawsuit to try to stop it.

"I don't know if that would happen, or not," Beck said. "A lot of this is posturing."

Beck said the city has been working on the project for the last 18 months, and was careful not to get into the business of an Internet service provider.

"We've done our homework and a lot of research," Beck said. "We don't want to be perceived as competing with the private sector."

Philadelphia is another major city that has embarked on making itself a giant hotspot for anyone looking to connect to the Internet. In the Minneapolis area, a half-dozen suburban towns offer wireless services, including Chaska and Buffalo, Beck said.