Rivals work on mobile internet registry

Leading mobile phone and computer firms have teamed up to create a domain registry for mobile internet sites.

The Mobile Top Level Domain (MTLD) registry has been proposed by mobile operating system sparring partners Nokia and Microsoft, along with other companies including 3, Vodafone, Orange, Sun Microsystems, Samsung and the GSM Association.

The companies said the registry is necessary to simplify internet usage from mobile devices and to help people surfing the mobile web to find sites more easily.

Although not yet approved by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), the directory aims to make wireless internet-based services simpler by offering a common naming and registration standard.

But analyst Ovum raised concerns over whether such a system could be streamlined without imposing too much central control.

"The precise role that the MTLD Alliance will play in this regard is, as yet, unclear," said Ovum in a statement.

The proposals could raise a number of thorny issues, such as which firm gets the top search ranking.

Ovum said: "Will such decisions be made on the basis of who pays the most, as with the fixed internet? Or will those who control the networks and the devices - Vodafone, Nokia, Microsoft, for example - get first pick?"

According to the analyst firm, wireless internet usage has been hindered because the browsing mechanism used for service discovery does not translate well from the fixed internet environment.