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Houston is now one step closer to becoming the world’s biggest wireless Internet bubble.

Members of the City Council on Wednesday approved the contract under which EarthLink will set it up.

“It’ll be faster than the dial-up connections that you get, and it’ll have the additional benefit of being mobile,” Mayor Bill White said.

When the bubble is in place, commuting businesspeople will have no trouble logging on in the city.

“I think it’s absolutely fantastic,” Andrew Long, who lives in Austin but frequently comes to Houston for business, said.

But computer experts warn there will be downsides too. 

For one, users won’t be able to log in just anywhere.

“It’s not unlike a cell phone signal.  But once you’re in a building, deep inside a building, obviously that signal degrades.  And you can have some problems picking it up,” computer talk show host Michael Garfield said.

Contrary to a widespread misconception, users won’t be able to flip open their notebook anywhere in Houston and surf the Internet for free.  Unless a user happens to be in a city park or next to a library or some other specifically designated place, he or she will have to pay – probably around $22 a month.

“It’s exciting and it’s – quote, unquote—sexy for the city of Houston to be build unwired, but again, let’s wait until the whole system is up.  And let’s see if it, indeed, really works,” Garfield said.

Laptop users should begin surfing the Internet on the Houston wireless system by the summer of 2009.