DailyTech - .TEL Top Level Domain Approved

Submit News

Internet .TEL Top Level Domain Approved
Brandon Hill (Blog) - May 18, 2006 12:52 PM

9 comment(s) - last by Xenoid.. on May 19 at 1:56 AM

.XXX out, .TEL in

While .xxx domain got the cold shoulder last week from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), another was approved by the board of directors. The .tel top-level domain (TLD) was granted to London-based Telnic Ltd. The Internet communications company is scheduled to announce registration details in the weeks to come while and its TLD will become effective next year. Telnic is under a 10-year contract with ICANN and will pay a fee to the governing body based on the number of domain names sold and on the wholesale registration price.

Telnic is hoping to make the .tel domain as a one stop shop for finding contact information on the Internet. Mobile users would be able to easily get in contact with businesses using a .tel domain and have access to the company's services. Yahoo! News/PC World reports:

On its Web site, Telnic offered the example of how the new domain could aid someone trying to reach the Hertz car rental service. A user would type Hertz.tel on a mobile phone and be connected to a customer service representative for the local area. Private individuals could list contact information such as their VoIP (Voice over IP) dialing details or their instant messaging name, Telnic said.

Comments

Threshold

Username
Password
remember me

This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled

ZZZzzzzzz...

By DigitalFreak on 5/18/2006 12:56:24 PM , Rating: 5

I would have preferred .xxx

I'm registering

By DigitalFreak on 5/18/2006 12:57:08 PM , Rating: 5

dontaskdont.tel

prOn

By bldckstark on 5/18/2006 1:08:26 PM , Rating: 3

Surely I am not the only person that has thought that requiring all nudity of any sort be required to be posted to an .xxx address would be the easiest way to limit childrens access to internet porn. Dag, all you would have to do would be to disallow any access to .xxx sites and you're set. Of course there would be other ways to get it, but it would require a little more work than it does now at least.
Another teacher at my wifes school had the net up on the TV screen teaching government and went to whitehouse.com. 27 4th grade kids got the shock of their life. If that site was required to be behind an .xxx address this accident (which apparently happens quite often) could easily be avoided.
On the negative side, kids might have to go back to National Geographic to get their kicks. Me? I only read it for the articles.

RE: prOn

By TomZ on 5/18/2006 1:26:36 PM , Rating: 2

Question - How do you get all "adult" web sites around the world to not use other domain extensions, to only use .xxx? What is the governing body, and who would enforce that?

Question - What is the objective definition of pornography or adult material that everyone in the whole world can agree on?

I agree with your goal, but unfortunately, the proposed solution is not practical. I think that one of the reasons that .xxx was not approved.

Parent

Wow!

By Trisped on 5/18/2006 1:24:18 PM , Rating: 2

All the people in other countries that want there own "top level domain" to make it easier for their citizens to enjoy the internet, and we come out with something as useless as .tel. How stupid is that?

RE: Wow!

By TomZ on 5/18/2006 1:27:59 PM , Rating: 2

I agree - .tel is pretty stupid - at least when you look at things with a broad perspective. I think the main beneficiary of this domain will be the company whose job it will be to sell those domain names. And I wish them good luck.

Parent

to me

By Wwhat on 5/18/2006 11:21:46 PM , Rating: 2

This seems a new pointless commercialization and corruption of the existing system of domainnames, obviously there is no use for a .tel domain but it's an experiment on giving companies a whole own sales-niche.
It makes you wonder if they weren't right about america no longer being the right place to control these core internet systems.
First a rejection of xxx because some religious nutters had issues with acknowledging the existence of sex, and now this cheap capitalism as motivator.

RE: to me

By Xenoid on 5/19/2006 1:56:29 AM , Rating: 2

Looks like whoever wanted .tel had more money than whoever wanted .xxx

Parent

um..yeah

By kattanna on 5/18/2006 1:02:25 PM , Rating: 2

"A user would type Hertz.tel on a mobile phone and be connected to a customer service representative for the local area."

yeah...cause 411 is so hard to use, especially while driving...

"Private individuals could list contact information such as their VoIP (Voice over IP) dialing details or their instant messaging name"

say hello to MOUNDS of spam and telemarketing calls..WOOHOO..sign me up!!