Signaling the growing use of wireless devices to connect to the Internet, the mobile industry started registering dot.mobi domain names on Monday in an attempt to create a domain to help simplify the oft-cumbersome use of online services.

Led by Nokia and approved by ICANN, the international organization that regulates Internet domains, .mobi is supported by companies like Ericsson, Vodafone, Google, and Microsoft, among others.

Neil Edwards, the CEO of dotMobi, the company organizing the registration, told RedHerring.com the company had already received several thousand registrations from trademark holders including Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Vodafone, and Sony. The registration opened at 3:00 in the afternoon on United Kingdom time, which was morning in Silicon Valley.

Mr. Edwards described the purpose of the .mobi system as an effort to create a standard guaranteeing predictable and consistent mobile web browsing. “There is not enough content, it is not reliable, and it costs a lot of money,” Mr. Edwards said. “.mobi fixes all those problems” (see RH Internet Report).

Through May 29, companies that are members of mobile organizations like CTIA, GSMA, and MMA, are able to register their trademarked names under the dot.mobi system. Mr. Edwards said he expected between 5,000 and 7,000 registrations over the next week.

In mid-June, trademark holders from other industries can start registering for dot.mobi names, and Mr. Edwards expects that period to bring in “tens of thousands.”

At the beginning of September, the general public can begin bidding on the dot.mobi names, and Mr. Edwards expects millions to participate. “That will be the big push,” he said.

For now the dot.mobi sites cost several hundred dollars to purchase, but when the registration opens to the public it could send off a mobile land grab, similar to the dot-com speculation of the ’90s.

Dot Mobi

Unlike the .xxx domain name system that was rejected for explicit content, dot.mobi is widely supported by ICANN, and most Internet and mobile companies (see Triple X Is X’d Out).

Consumers who use a mobile device to connect to a “Google.mobi” or “Noki.mobi” will know that those sites will be easy to read and access through a cell phone or handheld device.

That will be a vast improvement over the difficult-to-use mobile Internet access system now, with many web sites that are not optimized for mobile viewing.

The registration process signals that the mobile Internet is growing in popularity. As cell phones become more sophisticated and handheld computers drop in price, analysts at research firms like Yankee Group say that wireless data will bring in as much as $100 billion globally this year. Though that figure includes services like text-messaging and mobile content sales.

Some critics contend that optimizing web sites should not be done with a new domain name registration process, and that the dot.mobi adds more unneeded complexity to the mobile web.