CUMBERLAND (AP) – A New York company has brought wireless high-speed Internet access to Chebeague Island, and it’s looking to establish a similar network on Long Island and Cliff Island.

At a time when many communities are experimenting with Wi-Fi access, Ubiquitair Inc. decided the island represented a good opportunity to reach an underserved market.

Before launching its service in the summer, most residents were relegated to dialup connections, the slowest way to connect to the Internet. The island’s only high-speed Internet connections were through the library.

David Hill has been trying to change that for the last two years.

He thought his quest for high-speed access was unattainable until Ubiquitair rolled out Wi-Fi technology this summer.

“The problem is just access to the Internet and being able to participate in modern communications is what it comes down to,” said Hill. “It wouldn’t be so bad if I wasn’t spoiled rotten by having broadband at work.”

Ubiquitair has two antennas on top of the Chebeague Island Inn that tap into a high-speed circuit provided by Verizon. The antennas provide access to a 10- to 15-acre area on the north part of the island.

Anywhere under that umbrella, people with wireless-ready computers can get high-speed access to the Internet. The monthly fee of $39.99 is comparable to what people pay in Portland to connect using cable modems.

“You can basically be sitting on the porch with your laptop, overlooking the harbor, surfing at broadband speeds,” said Stuart Santoro, Ubiquitair’s president and chief executive officer.

For residents not covered by the umbrella, Ubiquitair can place a small antenna on houses to tap into the main wireless network off the Inn’s roof.

Gov. John Baldacci has made expanding broadband access across rural Maine a priority.

In January, he launched his “Connect Maine” program to ensure that 90 percent of Maine communities have broadband service by 2010.

For islands, the issue goes beyond convenience, allowing people who live on islands to become telecommuters, said Nancy Jordan, librarian on Long Island and trustee of the Island Institute, a Rockland-based community-development organization that focuses on issues affecting Maine’s 15 year-round island communities.

“I think that it will help us keep people that we have here that for various reasons might have to move out, for employment reasons,” she said. “And I think it will help us attract new families, which we need desperately. It will give people the ability to work from here.”