(Bloomberg) Sprint Corp., the No. 4 U.S. mobile- phone company, said its customers will get access to 2,300 public wireless Internet connections run by SBC Communications Inc.

The accord boosts by 75 percent the number of wireless fidelity, or Wi-Fi, sites available in coffee shops and other public places to Sprint customers, said Wes Dittmer, head of Sprint’s Wi-Fi unit. SBC users can browse the Web and view files at five Sprint locales. He declined to disclose financial terms.

U.S. Wi-Fi sales may surge to more than $1.5 billion a year by 2008 from $33 million this year, said Pyramid Research, helping phone carriers compensate for a slump in wire-line services. Second-quarter sales of local calling, the main business at San Antonio-based SBC, dropped 6.5 percent. Sprint’s long-distance sales fell 6.6 percent.

``It’s an addicting habit to get into, being able to be wireless and move at that fast a pace,’’ said Dittmer in an interview.

Communications companies make Wi-Fi available at so-called hot spots mainly in public locations to cater to business travelers who need access to networks or the Internet outside the home or office. At least 10,000 hot spots will be available to Sprint’s consumer and corporate customers by 2005 through additional agreements Dittmer declined to detail.

Sprint sells unlimited Wi-Fi service for $50 a month.

Shares of Overland Park, Kansas-based Sprint, also the third- largest U.S. long-distance operator, rose 7 cents to $19.42 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading yesterday. SBC, the nation’s No. 2 local carrier, rose 5 cents to $25.74.

Wi-Fi Access

SBC clients will have access from laptops and handheld devices to more than 20,000 hot spots by the end of 2006, the company said in a joint statement with Sprint. SBC said it has about 2,700 hot spots in hotels, airports, coffee shops and United Parcel Service Inc. stores.

Sprint locations available to SBC under the agreement are in the international airports of Salt Lake City, Kansas City, Missouri, and Louisville, Kentucky; the Addison, Texas, convention center; and a shopping center in Tyson’s Corner, Virginia.

The agreement will take effect in the fourth quarter, said SBC spokesman Michael Coe.

Most of the 3,000 hot spots now available to Sprint users came through agreements with companies including AT&T Wireless Services Inc. Sprint and AT&T Wireless, the nation’s third- biggest cellular carrier, agreed in April to share Wi-Fi hot spots in five airports.