dotMobi Offers 'City.mobi' Names to City Governments

dotMobi Offers 'City.mobi' Names to City Governments

July 10, 2007

Helsinki.mobi Trial Leads to Availability of More Than 650
'Reserved' City Names for Developing Relevant Consumer
Content


    DUBLIN, Ireland and WASHINGTON, July 10
/Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- dotMobi, the company behind .mobi --
the first and only Internet address designed specifically
for mobile phones -- today announced that it is making
approximately 650 city names available to city governments.


    Until today, dotMobi has kept these names on reserve to
ensure that they would be available for cities to develop
relevant content for locals and for tourists. 

    "With thousands of .mobi sites now live and more
than 600,000 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, CEO of dotMobi. 

    "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,"
Edwards added.

    The first city to trial the process was Helsinki,
Finland. Helsinki's investment promotion agency, Greater
Helsinki Promotion, created http://Helsinki.mobi and is
also responsible for its continued development and
marketing.

    Ismo Rantala of Greater Helsinki Promotion said,
"Helsinki.mobi has driven traffic and recognition to
Helsinki. We are using Helsinki.mobi both as a service for
visitors to Helsinki as well as a platform for mobile
creativity for our residents and businesses. "

    Micah Gland, also of Greater Helsinki Promotion, said,
"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."

    City names are being made available for local
governments or their designees for an initial period of two
years with provisions for renewing the names. A .mobi site
can provide an ideal forum to share local news, business
updates and civic information plus culture and events
listings with an increasingly active resident population.
It can also provide a gateway for visitors to access local
services, shopping, attractions, transportation and other
valuable resources.  

    To apply, qualified entities submit a short proposal
that discusses how the planned domain use provides the
mobile community with new features, services and local
content. The proposal must also address marketing and
promotion plans. 

    Cities commit to putting live content behind the name
within 60 days of their being awarded their domain and
agree that content will compliant with dotMobi standards,
as based on a 5/5 score on the http://ready.mobi report, to
ensure a good user experience. Expected marketing -- such as
launch events, public relations and local marketing efforts
-- are outlined in the application process documentation at
http://pc.mtld.mobi/switched/reserved.html .

    dotMobi will evaluate all proposals, and successful
applicants will enter into a contract with dotMobi. The
application process opens August 20, 2007, and continues
indefinitely.

    The full list of available .mobi city name domains plus
proposal process information is at
http://pc.mtld.mobi/switched/reserved.html.

    About dotMobi

    dotMobi (the informal name of mTLD Top Level Domain,
Ltd.), a consortium based in Dublin, Ireland with offices
in Washington, DC and Beijing, is leading the growth of
Internet use from mobile phones with the .mobi domain name.
Unique among domain name providers, dotMobi ensures that
services and sites developed around .mobi are optimized for
use by mobile devices. On-the-go consumers can have
confidence that an Internet site or service will work on
their mobile phones when using a .mobi address.

    dotMobi is backed by leading mobile operators, network
& device manufacturers, and internet content providers,
including Ericsson, GSM Association, Hutchison 3, Microsoft,
Nokia, Orascom Telecom, Samsung Electronics, Syniverse,
T-Mobile, Telefonica Moviles, TIM, Visa and Vodafone.
dotMobi is also a sponsor of W3C's Mobile Web Initiative. 

    For more information on dotMobi domains and
registration information, visit http://mtld.mobi . Visit
the dotMobi blog at http://blog.mobi .




    For more information, please contact:

     Vance Hedderel
     dotMobi
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail]

     Todd Witkemper
     A&R Edelman for dotMobi
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail]

    For more information about Greater Helsinki Promotion,
please contact:
  
     Johanna Korhonen, Director, Communications
     Greater Helsinki Promotion
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail]