New '.mobi' Mobile Domain Names Hit the Web

Mobile internet took a giant leap on Monday when the first, and only, top-level domain name - .mobi – for mobile phones took off. Within hours of the opening of registration, thousands of websites signed up to get in on the latest fad to revolutionise the mobile industry. The .mobi top-level domain name aims to create a new experience of browsing the internet on mobile devices. Presently, most web pages are designed for browsing the web on a high-speed, high-capacity, and large screen computer. With a .mobi suffix, an opportunity has emerged to create a family of web pages formatted to suit the small screen size and limited bandwidth resources of mobile devices. 'The launch of this unique mobile domain is moving ahead at full speed and on schedule,' said Neil Edwards, chief executive of Mobile Top Level Domain Ltd (mTLD), the Dublin-based company responsible for registering and administering the .mobi domain. 'We are confident that .mobi will revolutionise the optimised mobile internet and positively impact consumers in the mobile community,' he added.

The .mobi concept, actualised by a 10 July 2005 agreement between the company responsible for assigning internet addresses ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) and mTLD, would provide a framework for the design of websites solely dedicated to mobile devices. mTLD is a joint venture backed by a consortium of companies including Google, Microsoft, Vodafone, Samsung, Ericsson and Nokia. During its sunrise registration, from 22 May to 29 May, only members of mobile industry associations have an opportunity to register their trademark names as a .mobi mobile domain. From 12 June, other trademark holders will be able to register theirs, while individual users can only get a .mobi domain name from 28 August.

However, a .mobi domain name does not come cheap. A .mobi trademark name costs US$140 and a generic one costs US$45 a year, compared with about US$10 a year for a typical .com name. mTLD insists that the high price is to weed out cyber squatters – those who buy potentially lucrative web names and attempt to resell them for a higher sum later. In a bid to keep them off, mTLD said that it is working closely with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), registrars, copyright bodies and site owners to ensure that trademarks are properly protected during the sunrise registration period. mTLD has also appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers Belgium (PwC) to verify the .mobi sunrise domain name registration processes.

Outlook and Implications

• The New Internet: The emergence of the .mobi framework has the potential to make the biggest impact in the IT market since the dot.com crash. The combination of higher speeds available on mobile 3G networks with a mobile optimised .mobi website could be the Holy Grail for mobile operators seeking opportunities to boost data revenues to offset declining voice revenues. Despite surging sales in WAP-enabled devices, mobile data usage has not yet hit the skies. As Vodafone's results show, messaging still accounts for a significant proportion of mobile data revenues. However, a fast reliable internet browsing experience on mobile devices could trigger a whole new experience in mobile data usage, hastening the arrival of mobile commerce, mobile banking, mobile marketing and mobile advertising services – a fact confirmed by the presence of Microsoft, Google and Yahoo among the major promoters of .mobi (see Europe: 31 March 2006: Mobile Data Update - Messaging Cranks Up M-Commerce and World: 15 February 2006: Vodafone Brings Google Search to Mobile Phones).

• A Developing World Phenomenon: Although .mobi web pages will kindle a new zeal in mobile web browsing, the prospect of offering a reliable internet service on mobile phones would change the IT landscape of most developing worlds. In regions with little infrastructure for fixed internet services, the .mobi web browsing option will become the preferred option. Societies that have abandoned fixed telephone services for mobile phones will see the .mobi option as the icing on the cake for embracing mobile services. For the companies promoting the new service, the .mobi option is an opportunity to drive sales amongst a population with little internet penetration. Nokia and Samsung will be hoping for higher phone sales in emerging markets, while Vodafone is bound to push its web browsing credentials aggressively to a society clamouring for better opportunities to join the information super highway.
• Obstacles Remain: Although the proponents of the .mobi option promote it as the route to a better appreciation of the mobile internet experience, the key obstacle to mobile internet has been the charges levied for mobile data by operators. The .mobi option would not be the magic wand to change user interest in mobile internet yet, unless it reaches mass market adoption fairly quickly – a fact Global Insight believes is unlikely. The combination of sustained high prices for mobile data and the time lapse for content providers to introduce .mobi-designed web sites, will not help user interest in the service. Besides, options already exist for web sites to recognise what equipment the user is browsing on and attempt to render an optimised internet page for the user.