dotMobi offers mobile city domains for free

Following on from a successful pilot project in Helsinki, the body behind the registration of mobile domain names is hoping to encourage governments to create sites to attract people to their respective countries by giving away 650 city names for free, including some of the UK's leading lights such as Birmingham, London and Manchester.

Historically, city.mobi domain suffixes have been put aside on a special reserved list, but dotMobi (also known as Top Level Domain or mTLD) has now made the names available to others for an initial period of two years based on Helsinki's use of a mobile site by the city's promotion agency, Greater Helsinki Promotion.

Interested parties are invited to apply for their names, submitting a short propsosal detailing how the domain would be used to provide new offerings for the mobile community, from August 20, when their application will be assessed by dotMobi before contracts are awarded.

They must also agree to have live content on the site within 60 days of the domain being awarded and ensure that they remain compliant with dotMobi standards.

"With thousands of .mobi sites now live and more than 575,000 domains registered, consumers now understand that sites built on the .mobi domain give them the freedom to take the internet with them, wherever they go," said Neil Edwards, dotMobi's chief executive.

"dotMobi gives consumers low-cost access to information they need, where and how they need it. Cities will be able to use their .mobi sites to provide important city-related information to local citizens. These sites will also be able to provide compelling local information for visitors and help increase local tourist dollars."

The introduction of the Helsinki.mobi site has driven increased interest in what the city has to offer for visitors as well as proving of value to local residents and businesses, according to Ismo Rantala of Greater Helsinki Promotion.

Micah Gland, also of Greater Helsinki Promotion, added: "The launch of Helsinki.mobi was held in conjunction with the 52nd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest in May 2007. Being able to promote a site like Helsinki.mobi while thousands of visitors were in the city proved to be a good way to encourage use of the site and was reflected in the strong number of 'hits' that Helsinki.mobi received. Even better, the number of visitors to the site has remained steady since then."

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