SAN FRANCISCO -- Fast food giant McDonald's (Quote, Company Info) Tuesday continued its quest for providing wireless Internet access and took the wrapping off of its latest batch of hotspots (define) during a launch party here.

The company, which successfully opened 10 kiosks in downtown New York back in March, said it is supplying local area networks via Wi-Fi (define) at 75 of its Bay Area restaurants from SF to Half Moon Bay with 55 going live today.

Customers will be able to identify participating restaurants by signage that displays the Golden Arches in the universal Internet @ symbol. Cost for a two-hour wireless Internet connection at these locations is $4.95, with other purchase options available. Buying a Big Macs and Filet-o-Fish is not mandatory, however.

"We want the Golden Arches to be the first choice for a great meal and a place to go wireless," McDonald's West Division President Don Thompson said.

As before, chip making giant Intel (Quote, Company Info) is helping with the launch, providing sponsorship, technology and a joint marketing campaign. But instead of using Cometa Networks as its provider, McDonald's has tapped Austin, Texas-based Wayport. The wireless ISP (define) is best known for its hotel and airport contracts including seven major airports: Dallas-Fort Worth, Seattle-Tacoma, San Jose, Austin-Bergstrom, LaGuardia, Oakland and Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Cometa is a partnership between IBM (Quote, Company Info), AT&T (Quote, Company Info) and Intel.

Intel and Wayport have worked together in the past to promote hotspots based on Intel's Centrino wireless chipset. McDonald's said all of its Wi-Fi restaurants are verified with Intel Centrino mobile technology.