The Weather Channel Interactive Secures weather.mobi Domain

Premier provider of weather information becomes first to secure rights to a premium .mobi domain via RFP process

DUBLIN, Ireland, WASHINGTON and ATLANTA, Aug. 15 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- dotMobi, the consortium behind the first and only Internet address created for mobile phones, today announced that The Weather Channel Interactive has become the first company to secure rights to a premium .mobi domain through participation in a unique Request for Proposal (RFP) premium name process.

As a result of the agreement, consumers will have a new method for accessing weather information and features provided by The Weather Channel anytime, anywhere via their mobile phones. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

"The Weather Channel is dedicated to ensuring that our customers have access to the information they need, how they want it. Adding the weather.mobi domain to our mobile product offerings helps us continue to meet that goal," said Louis Gump, Vice President, Mobile, for The Weather Channel Interactive.

"Through this RFP process, dotMobi developed a program that enables companies like The Weather Channel Interactive to provide the best content for highly-desired .mobi domain names in a way that is always focused on mobile consumers. This approach lets us continue to fulfill our mission to providing consumers with the best, most up-to-date weather information available at any time," Gump added.

dotMobi evaluated RFP submissions for the weather.mobi domain based on the applicant's business and technical capability, with an emphasis on the proposed content for the web site relating to the domain name.

"The top driver of growth for the mobile internet is quality content and a positive user experience. We decided early on that content providers who want to use a premium .mobi domain name would have different ways to get access to those names, like this special RFP process," said Neil Edwards, CEO of dotMobi. "Our RFP process was developed to ensure that the proposed domain owner has a well-constructed plan to deliver content that is useful. The Weather Channel submitted the strongest proposal for bringing mobile users content that they will find beneficial."

Available on the mobile web since 1999, and producing the second-most visited mobile site behind Yahoo! Mail, The Weather Channel Mobile continues to deliver the most comprehensive weather data available, including current conditions, detailed hourly and seven-day forecasts and severe weather information for over 98,000 locations worldwide.

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

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.

About The Weather Channel Interactive

The Weather Channel Interactive (TWCi) is the leading provider of broadband and wireless weather products including weather.com, Desktop Weather by The Weather Channel and The Weather Channel Mobile. weather.com, the Web site of The Weather Channel, is the ultimate source of weather on the Web, helping users plan their lives by delivering timely current conditions, expert forecasts and relevant lifestyle content for 98,000 locations worldwide. weather.com reaches more than 30 million unique users each month, is the most popular source of online weather, news and information and is the most trusted source of online weather information according to Nielsen/NetRatings. TWCi provides consumers with unique and customizable products such as Desktop Weather and a full lineup of mobile services including downloads, messaging, mobile Web, and mobile video. Other TWCi sites include forGetaway.com, a vacation home rental site and Forecast Earth, a site dedicated to the discussion of climate change.