ICANN, The Internet's governing body, has approved the creation of the ".mobi" domain suffix. This can be used by cell phone companies to design their Websites. Many people question whether creating separate domain for mobile devices is necessary, but experts feel the move is aimed at improving ease of use of Internet-based mobile services.

A joint venture of mobile technology companies, mTLD Top Level Domain, next year will start issuing Internet domain names under a new .mobi top-level domain name, the company said.

The Vodafone Group and others have completed a contract with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) that formalized the creation of the .mobi domain. After it creates a registry service, mTLD expects to begin issuing .mobi domain names in the first half of next year. It has been contracted to provide the registry service for .mobi for the next ten years, mTLD said.

Rick Fant, a member of the board of mTLD said the company hopes to foster more mobile use of the Internet. He said that mobile Internet access is now limited as many do not have it and even if they have, do not know how to use it. Fant said the New .mobi Domain will solve all these issues. "When you see .mobi at the end of a service, you know it's designed to work with a mobile device," he said.

According to mTLD, the initiative is also aimed at creating opportunities for content providers, ISVs and ASPs to extend new and existing Internet-based services to their customers.