The city of Ipoh in Perak is creating a giant wireless "hotspot" that will enable residents to surf the Internet anywhere in the city centre, a report said today.

Hasan Nawawi Abdul Rahman, mayor of Ipoh said residents within five kilometres of the city council would have wireless access by year's end.

"We are aiming to provide wireless broadband in a five kilometre radius from the Ipoh city council headquarters," he was quoted as saying by the Star newspaper.

He said the move was in line with plans to put Ipoh, one of Malaysia's biggest cities, at the forefront of wireless access.

"This is all part of (Perak state chief) Mohamad Tajol Rosli Ghazali's goal to make Ipoh the first city in Malaysia to go wireless by the end of the year," he said.

Hasan said city hall would build a tower to send the signal for wireless access so that people with laptops could surf anywhere, even their cars, reported the newspaper.

"With this service, people in Ipoh can get the latest news and information anywhere, anytime," he said.

About 400,000 people will be able to access the service in Ipoh, which is expected to be covered with a one-off fee of less than the cost of a local phone call, he said.