New, "dot-mobi" domain names are being offered for sale, starting today, in an effort to boost the use of mobile devices for accessing the web, but critics - some in the tech industry - are not happy.

Critics of the dot-mobi domain say the profileration of new domains are costly and an opportunity for fraud, writes the Financial Times. More than 13,000 names have already been registered in an initial period reserved for trademark holders. Microsoft, Nokia and Vodafone are promoting "dot-mobi." But others, including Verizon Communications, said there was no "particular business need" for "dot-mobi"; the company has registered verizon.mobi only to prevent others' taking it.

Moreover, web developers generally agree that there is no technical benefit to using "dot-mobi," because websites, no matter their domain suffix, can be designed to adapt to mobile phone screens.

"What we would not want to happen is for this name to be an infringer's paradise," Sarah Deutsch, associate general counsel for Verizon, is quoted as saying. "A lot of the new domain names just compound the problem of trademark infringement and fraud." The most valuable domains are still .com domains, she added.