.mobi

ICANN Approves ".mobi" Suffix for Mobile Phone Websites

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 12, 2005 - 10:27am.

Paris -- The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced that it has approved the new ".mobi" suffix, which will be specially designed for mobile phone websites. mTLD Top Level Domain -- a joint venture comprising Hutchison 3, the GSM Association, Ericsson, Microsoft, Nokia, Samsung, Syniverse Technologies, TIM, Telefonica Moviles, T-Mobile and Vodafone -- will handle the registration of names on the ".mobi" domain, ICANN said. The mTLD joint venture, which hopes that consumers will be more likely to upgrade mobile phones if more websites are optimized specifically for handheld devices, lobbied heavily for the new suffix. "As .mobi will encourage the usage of advanced functionalities in mobile devices, the market potential for those devices will increase," mTLD said. ICANN said the first websites for mobile devices would be ready by next year.

tags: ICANN | .mobi | Suffix | Mobile Phone Websites |