Ever wanted to take a tour of Washington, DC

Kool! Now you can - on your mobile phone.....

Washington, DC - Just in time for the busy tourist season, DC's newest Internet startup company, mobiletours.org, launches today with a free tour of the Capitol's major sites for mobile phones. The service has eleven separate numbers to call, each of which corresponds to a famous building or memorial. The company plans on rolling out a marketing campaign that consists of handing out flyers to tourists and educating the tourism industry about the service.

Founder of the company, Richard Zielinski says, "We are using the latest IP phone technology, based on the Asterisk® open source PBX, to bring our podcasts into people's mobile phones. Its cutting edge stuff, but the service is very user friendly. Anyone who can dial a phone number will be able to access the tour."

The tours consist of short two minute histories of the site followed by a story or audio file. At the Lincoln Memorial for example, users will hear a rare audio interview from 1938 of an old man recalling what it was like, as a 9-year-old school boy, to watch Abraham Lincoln deliver his Gettysburg Address. At the Washington Monument the narrator reads an article from 1908 in which a Washington Senator baseball player catches a ball dropped from the top window to win a $500 bet. At the war memorials, listeners will hear interviews with Veterans. Says Zielinski, "We want the tour to be informative, but we also want it to be engaging. Visiting these national treasures can be a deeply personal experience; we want to help enrich that experience."

While mobile phone tours are becoming popular, mobiletours.org is the first company to offer their services in a major city for free. Although not intended to replace a knowledgeable tour guide, mobiletours can be an excellent alternative that allows for both convenience and flexibility.

The tour can also be freely downloaded off of the website for use in digital MP3 players. Mobiletours.org is planning on rolling out a New York City and Boston tour later this spring.

www.mobiletours.org

Washington Monument 202-552-1247
Lincoln Memorial 202-552-1233
Vietnam Memorial 202-552-1235
Korean Memorial 202-552-1236
WWII Memorial 202-552-1237
FDR Memorial 202-552-1242
Jefferson Memorial 202-552-1244
White House 202-552-1246
U.S. Capitol 202-552-1245
Ford's Theater 202-552-1243
Arlington Cemetery 202-552-1239