The general public could begin signing up Tuesday for their own .mobi wireless Internet domain names so their sites could be viewable on cell phones and other mobile devices.

The general registration began with the “land rush” on Tuesday, followed by a standard general registration on October 11.

The organization managing .mobi is Mobile Top Level Domain, also known as dotMobi, a Dublin-based joint venture backed by a number of tech heavyweights, including Microsoft, Google, Vodafone, Ericsson, Samsung Electronics, Hutchison 3, T-Mobile, Telfonica Moviles, and Nokia.

“In the past, using the Internet on a mobile device presented huge obstacles for the consumer,” dotMobi CEO Neil Edwards said in a statement. “We’re creating a link between mobile operators, Internet content providers, and the millions of mobile users seeking a consistent, reliable, and enjoyable Internet experience.”

A group of registrars, accredited by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), has joined them to actually sign up customers, including Woburn, Massachusetts-based EnCirca.

LandRushBuilding Up

Only about 13,000 businesses have signed up so far for the .mobi domains, according to Mobile Top Level Domain, in part because many cell phones and mobile devices are already able to access corporate dot-com web sites and don’t require the extra formatting that the dot-mobi domains would probably require.

The majority of signups have come about because companies have wanted to prevent cyberquatters from taking over the domains, but more companies may sign up for the domains at the cheaper prices that are starting to be offered to the general public.

The dotMobi people anticipate up to 90,000 names to be registered during the initial land rush, with several hundred thousand registrations by year end, as the price of the mobile domains falls close to the pricing for web-based dot-com domains.

“The general availability of .mobi domains represents another step forward in making the mobile Internet a reality for millions of consumers around the world,” Andrew McLelland, director of projects and marketing at Interactive Media in Retail Group, said in a statement.

Contact the writer:MCohn@RedHerring.com

del.icio.us

Digg this

Slash it