Three Iowa cities are using a free Wi-Fi service to help economic development in their downtown areas.

Cedar Rapids, Coralville and Iowa City lie along the Interstate 380 corridor in eastern Iowa, and are working together with Strix Systems, which is providing the wireless mesh network technology, to create the Corridor Free Wireless Project or cFree. The effort is using a combination of public and private monies and is supported through the economic development efforts of all three cities, said Jamie Licko, executive director of the Cedar Rapids Downtown District and one of cFree's organizers.

In Cedar Rapids' case, cFree is part of a multi-pronged effort to revive a downtown area decimated when telecom bubble burst, she said.

"We have a downtown core that has seen its struggles," Licko said. "We lost a fair amount when the telecom industry took a hit and we lost MCI, and McLeod moved out of downtown. We lost employees and lost a good chunk of the retail core and the restaurants that had been here. That was in 2001-2002."

The other two cities have a similar objective, hoping to bring foot traffic back into areas to stimulate retail and entertainment businesses.

The service will be in place by Labor Day, Licko said, and is being sponsored in part by Iowa.com, a search engine designed to provide information specifically targeted to Iowa.

"This is a way for them to tap into that 18 to 40 demographic that doesn't necessarily read newspapers and ads," she said.

When customers register for free and log on, they will first be shown an Iowa.com page, she said.

In addition, the $70,000 cost of the network technology and the $15,000 budgeted for marketing and other expenses, is being paid for through city and county funding, and grants.

The mesh network approach will use five large tower sites, and multiple responders, Licko said.

"Because it is a mesh network, if one site goes down, the others will work," she said.

Other small cities along the interstate between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City have expressed an interest in the technology and it's possible cFree will one day have wireless coverage all along the corridor, Licko said.