What is .tel?

ICANN just announced the addition of .tel to the DNS root zone, making it the 15th top level domain under contract with ICANN on the Internet.

What is .tel all about?

According to Telnic, the domain registry in charge of .tel, individuals and companies will be able to use the .tel domain to publish and update their contact information directly in their domain's DNS records, allowing them to decide, in real time, by what means their friends, colleagues and clients will be able to reach them. This could include: VoIP, conventional telephony (fixed or wireless), email, SMS, Skype, AIM and many more. (PDF file)

Apparently, .tel isn't a domain in the traditional sense. It will not be competing with .mobi, which was introduced last year and is all about "making the Internet mobile".

Instead, .tel plans to become a cutting edge, decentralized, globally accessible and privacy-enhanced contact directory:


Here's how it could work…

Imagine you want to call your friend Hank Magellan, who is stored in your phone directory as hankmagellan.tel. Your phone or computer connects to hankmagellan.tel and receives a response with all contact options that Hank has decided to offer at the current time. This might include phone:hankmagellan.tel, skype:hankmagellan.tel, cell:hankmagellan.tel, aim:hankmagellan.tel, and email:hankmagellan.tel.

You decide which of these contact method you want to use. In case you go for Skype, your phone launches the Skype application and sends out a request for skype:hankmagellan.tel. The DNS server responds with whatever Skype username Hank has told it that he is using at the moment. Your phone uses that username to call Hank on Skype.

But what if Hank wants to be left alone? He could instantly deactivate all records except email:hankmagellan.tel and voicemail:hankmagellan.tel. You realize that he doesn't want to be disturbed, so you send him an email from your device to whatever address Hank is currently using.

All of this is completely transparent. You don't have to memorize or store all of the numerous contact options of each of your friends and associates. All you need is yourfriend.tel and you're set.

First come, first served…

In an email to the Daily Domainer, a Telnic representative confirmed that .tel domains will be issued on a first come first served basis. So, for all the Adam Smiths out there, the first one to buy adamsmith.tel gets it. Everyone else will need to get asmith.tel, adams.tel and eventually asmith123.tel or some other combination. Adam may already have another online username (with Skype, AOL, MSN, Yahoo, Google, Hotmail, etc…) that he may choose to use, for example: wealthofnations.tel.

In order to avoid confusion when searching for a person within the .tel domain, Telnic will allow domain name owners to add keywords to the domains to help distinguish themselves in a search. For example, a search for Adam Smith might turn up several results, but when the searcher sees the key words, "London, Scuba instructor, nickname: Smithy" he will know he found the right one.

What about privacy?

Telnic will allow owners of .tel domains to restrict access to particular pieces of information to certain people (very much like a buddy list). For example, a domain owner could choose to make his work number public and accessible to everyone, whereas he could restrict access to my cell phone number to just his family and his lawyer.

Privacy features to defeat spam

By using the privacy features, .tel owners will be able to prevent access to sensitive contact details including emails, home or mobile telephone numbers or any other means they find confidential. Preventing unsolicited communication is an issue which the user can easily manage, and in fact is already being done today. With a simple click, users can configure their Skype client to only allow contact from people on their contact list (their buddies). The .tel domain will work in the same manner.

The future of telecommunications?

For .tel to reach critical mass it needs to be supported by a large number of devices and applications. To promote this process Telnic plans to release free applications to allow .tel domains to be integrated with the commonly used address books found in computer systems and mobile phones.

Is .tel a stroke of genius that could revolutionize and enhance the way we communicate, or a solution in search of a problem? No matter the answer (post your views below), it is already certain that tens of thousands of individuals and companies will want to be the first in line to register theirname.tel to make sure that nobody else does. Telnic plans to announce the official .tel launch timetable shortly.

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