Noted: If you need to surf the Web while eating a Big Mac, you’ll soon be able to surf for free. McDonald’s is lifting the regular $2.95 fee for two hours of web access beginning in mid January.

There will be no hourly limit. And you don’t even have to buy any food. The Register’s Fast Food Maven has the scoop about Orange County McDonalds: “Local McDonald’s to offer free wireless access soon.”

“We’re not just about hamburgers,” Dave Grooms, chief information officer for McDonald’s USA, said in an Associated Press story. “We are about convenience and all kinds of value.”

Not all the fast-food joints nationwide will offer free access to customers, notes the Dallas Morning News. Only 11,000 out of the 13,000 are going free. Fast Food Maven notes that Southern California locations are participating.

AT&T owns the wireless Internet network offered at McDonald’s, following last year’s acquisition of Wayport Inc. Terms for the free Wi-Fi deal at McDonalds were not disclosed.

AT&T already lets iPhone and its Internet customers access the company’s massive Wi-Fi hotspot network for free.

On Tuesday, Verizon Wireless added its mobile broadband customers to the group of Verizon customers who can now use its Wi-Fi network at no extra charge. They join Verizon FiOS Internet and certain DSL customers. T-Mobile also lets some of its Google Android customers access T-Mobile’s hotspots at no extra charge.

There are dozens of McDonald’s in Orange County that offer Wi-Fi. You can use this restaurant locator to find places near you: Find a McDonald’s with Wi-Fi.

More free Wi-Fi stories:

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