Why .TEL Is Different From Other Tlds – A Must Read

Posted on October 23rd, 2008 by admin in Domain News | 5 Comments »

Why should a business or an individual get a .Tel domain name? I mean, it’s just another tld in what has now become a vast, almost overwhelming sea of tlds.

What is different about the .Tel tld? This is a question I see propping up all over the place, even at the DNXpert forum. Why all the hype about what Telnic is doing?

From my viewpoint, the aim of the .Tel tld is to revolutionize contact details storage and organization by providing a global contact directory.

If you thought you would buy ComputerStores.tel and point it to an IP address with the aim of building a directory of computer store telephone numbers, think again. .Tel is not a domain name in that sense. The information on a .Tel domain name is stored on the DNS – right there in the registry. This information is editable via an easy interface at Telnic and will be updated as quickly as any pending DNS changes. There are no websites involved.

I think .Tel will probably the closest thing to a global business card – JohnMotson.tel would provide people with ways to contact me. If you have concerns about privacy, Telnic provides different levels of access for private domain names which allows only friends and family to view parts of your contact details that you deem private.

With the aid of the recently made public API .Tel will be available to various devices such as blackberry and iphone which means there will no longer be a need to go to PizzaHut.com to find the number for PizzaHut – you’ll go to PizzaHut.tel.

The one thing I still don’t understand is how the information will be localized. When you go to PizzaHut.Tel you want to see the number for your local area rather than the main office and you certainly don’t want to do too much searching on your blackberry. I am sure the folks at Telnic have thought of this too but it would be cool to see localization explained somewhere in the faq.

In any case, over 100 registrars have already signed up to distribute .Tel domain names so you can expect to see .Tel offers at your favourite registrar soon.

Any thoughts?