SAN FRANCISCO — Google Inc. plans to offer free, high-speed Internet access to everyone in its home town of Mountain View, Calif., a hospitable gesture that the online search leader hopes to see spread to other parts of the country.

The new wireless, or Wi-Fi, network, is believed to establish Mountain View as the largest U.S. city with totally free Internet access available throughout the entire community, according to Google and city officials.

St. Cloud, Fla., a suburb of Orlando with a population of about 28,000, claimed that title earlier this year after it launched a free Wi-Fi network.

About 72,000 people reside in Mountain View, about 35 miles south of San Francisco. As the home to major companies like Google and VeriSign Inc., Mountain View's daytime population can swell above 100,000.

"We aren't concerned about being able to handle the load," said Chris Sacca, a Google executive who oversaw the Mountain View project. "We think we have built a pretty cool, robust network."

Similar Wi-Fi networks are under development in many other cities, including Philadelphia and Chicago, but most of those envision charging for Internet access.