For those of you looking to register your .tel domains soon, here's a small price comparison I made between EuroDNS and Webnames.ca which are probably the 2 best places you can get .tel domains moving forward.

But first, let me tell you that similar to other domain extension launchings, the .tel will be in the same Sunrise-Landrush-General Registration format. The sunrise period is for trademark owners only. Landrush period is the all important first-come first-served basis while the General Registration period is when registration would be open to everybody.

Prices are a little stiff for these .tel domains but there would be no doubt that they will be very good domain investments especially those short generic ones and some of them famous and general terms.

Here's my price comparison:

Sunrise Period (minimum 3 years initial registration) starting December 3, 2008
EuroDNS - US$374
Webnames.ca - US$399

Landrush Period (minimum 3 years initial registration) starts February 3, 2009
EuroDNS - US$445
Webnames.ca - US$375

General Registration (minimum 1 year initial registration) starts March 24, 2009
EuroDNS - US$23
Webnames.ca - US$19.99

If you've got a trademark, pre-register .tel with EuroDNS now and trust me you would be doing yourself a favor by avoiding domain squatters to do it for you and take advantage of your missed opportunity.

In the middle of this month, itwire.com published a small article about the possibilities for the new .tel domains.

Telnic, the company behind the .tel top level domain launching in December and billed as "a new communications 'hub' for individuals and businesses that...will enable secure sharing of contact information and true personalisation of online services" is releasing beta versions of applications for BlackBerries, iPhones and Window -based PCs that will enable address books to be dynamically updated with information stored in a .tel owner's domain.

".tel owners will now be able to experience total control over the services they subscribe to, having an online identity under their own domain name which they own, and which acts as a hub where all kinds of services and people can interact with them, securely and efficiently.

He claimed that, "With the new services that developers can deliver for customers, the bad old days of manually updating contact information and the outdated and fragmented information available within yellow page directories online will finally be a thing of the past."
Don't be surprised when your new phones come with a built-in .tel domain application next year!

.Tel domain registrations are available through the following registrars:

1. Network Solutions

2. Domainit.com

3. EuroDNS

4. Easy Space

5. Moniker.com

Simple and common first names will definitely be the first to go soon as the dot tel domains are launched in the next few months. Even right now, some may have already pre-registered .tel domains which are considered premium because they can easily be recalled. Think in the lines of mary.tel, or mike.tel and bob.tel. If you by any chance have any of those names, you might have just missed your chance.

All's not lost though. EuroDNS.com is still accepting pre-registration for everybody on the planet. Anybody can apply and pre-register their dot tel domains on a first-come first served basis. Even if you don't actually own the name, registering commonfirstname.tel can be one of the better domain investments around because there will always be an available buyer.

Other registration options for .tel domains are:

1. Network Solutions

2. Domainit.com

3. Easy Space

4. Moniker.com

PRweb.com recently released a simple and yet imformative summary of .tel domains pre-registration. Dot tel domains are predicted to be one of the most useful domains not just for website owners but also professionals and ordinary people by acting as their digital business card accessible anywhere internet-connected devices are available.

The .tel enables the user to store, update and publish contact information, web links and keywords directly on the Internet under a unique domain name. Simple, fast and accessible from any device, .tel provides a new internet standard for businesses and individuals to take full control over how and where people reach them. The .tel enables global discoverability in the first 'live', next-generation contacts directory, with keywords enhancing search engine optimization.

Starting today, EuroDNS offers the chance to submit a request for any .TEL domain name for the three upcoming launch phases of the extension.

Xavier Buck, CEO of EuroDNS explains, "The Sunrise, Premium Landrush and Go Live phases for .TEL are now open for pre-registration at EuroDNS. Since the Registry will handle domain name applications on a first-come, first-served basis in each category, interested parties are strongly encouraged to submit their requests now".

Get ready for the Sunrise phase. "If you are a trademark owner, now is your chance to pre-register the .TEL domain name corresponding to your trademark. From the 3rd December onwards your application will then be subjected to validation from Deloitte". The sunrise is handled on a first-come, first-served basis and registrations will carry a minimum three year term at a set up price of 290 Euros, followed by an extra 18 Euros each year.

EuroDNS customers can also choose to pre-register for the Premium Landrush phase which lasts from the 3rd February until the 23rd March. This is a great opportunity to be the first to submit high quality premium domain names such as Generic Premium names. Contrary to other Registries, no auction process is involved and the fee is only 115 Euros per year (three years minimum).

The Go Live period is also accessible to pre-registrations with EuroDNS and based on the first-come, first-served method. It carries a one year minimum term for 18 Euros. Application will be sent to the Registry on the 24th March 2009.

All .Tel names pre-registered with EuroDNS that are not attributed during the Premium Landrush and Go Live phases will be re-credited to the applicants, except for the Sunrise period, for which the set-up fees always apply.

Xavier adds, "While the .TEL isn't like any other TLD and doesn't look like a standard website, it is essentially focused on communications and opens up new markets and opportunities. It is a revolution in the way people and companies will use the Internet and interact with each other and we are quite proud to offer our customers the possibility to enjoy it".

Other registrars that offer .tel domains are:

1. Network Solutions

2. Domainit.com

3. Easy Space

4. Moniker.com

Here's a nice story from hubcanada.com describing how John Demco co-founder of webnames.ca is raving about the latest domain promotionof .tel domains:

Did you forget or lose the last phone number business card your acquaintance gave to you a few hours ago? Well, if that person had a .tel domain, chances are you wouldn’t be worrying.

Since we live in an age in which there are more ways to communicate than ever before, .tel is welcoming a new servicewhere people can stay in touch without having to worry about e-mails and phone numbers.

John Demco, “The Godfather of .ca” and co-founder and director of Webnames.ca is very excited about .tel.

“.Tel will be the most convenient and efficient way to reach your contacts and ensure your contacts can reach you — wherever and however you choose,” said Demco. “Instead of exchanging individual pieces of information such as your phone number, e-mail, cell number, work number and so on, you will simply give people your .tel.”

.Tel will provide individuals and companies with a single point of contact where they can safely store, update and share contact information. This will include e-mail addresses, phone numbers, social networks, gaming IDs, websites, blogs, Skype, and so on.
If you happen to get a new phone number or e-mail address, simply update your new information on your .tel domain. There is no need to notify any of your contacts, just as long as they have your .tel address name memorized.

If you have a simple or unique name, getting a .tel domain is the perfect opportunity to let people know how you can be reached in a simple way. No more cards, just your dot tel like yourfirstname.tel or yourcompletename.tel.

This is a worthy blog entry from webnames.ca while they were promoting their .tel domain offerings. Read this and judge for yourselves:

Being in the middle of our .tel campaign and also in the midst of looking for a new house, it dawned on me how useful it would be if real estate agents and sales representatives all had a .TEL.

I keep thinking how simple it would be if the "For Sale" sign listed the .TEL address of the real estate agent or sales representative - eg. www.andyjones.tel.

It would be a snap to remember if you don't have time to note it down and it would allow you to lookup the .TEL domain name right on your mobile device to get easy access to the whole gamut of contact information (phone number, e-mail, etc.).

Get a leg up on you competitors and help me find you. Register your .TEL domain name before your competitors do.
I think real estate agents will not be the only professionals who should benefit with advertising through their dot tel domain extension. Basically most people who hand-out their business cards like sales people, listing agents, buyers and most professionals who get to meet clients and customers in person will soon see the benefits of having a .tel domain.

In an effort to support and enhance the .tel domain service, Telnic is pleased to provide the developer community with a comprehensive site filled with .tel related developer resources. The .tel infrastructure is an exciting development platform for innovative solutions in communications, VoIP, discovery and identity management.

From this area you can:
Download the .tel applications for desktops and mobiles
Get the source code and binaries of current and early releases
Make use of toolkits and APIs
Read the Developers FAQ, Howtos and Whitepapers
Read and write to the developer forum and wiki
Subscribe to the community RSS feeds

Please visit http://dev.telnic.org to get involved in the devlopment of .tel domains.

It is roughly just over a month till the dot tel domains are available for pre-registration and already many of the internet registrars have already followed EuroDNS in offering them. December 3 is a date many business owners should be wary of because it is their first chance to secure their names and trademarks so that domain squatters will be able to take advantage of them.
Many trademark owners have already been victims of domaining squatting most notably twitter.com. After missing out on their chance to register twitter.me, it was subsequently registered by someone else. The popular tech blog valleywag.com wrote about how twitter missed the opportunity to save some cash by just registering their .me domain early.

This time, many internet registrars will be offering .tel domains for everybody so to lessen domain squatting of this very important domain name extension. Pre-registration on early December 2008 will be available with the following popular and established registrars: Networksolutions.com, Dotster.com, Moniker.com, and Easyspace.com. Eurodns.com is the pioneer registrar to offer .tel domains.

Many publishers have hailed the .tel domains as a new way of communication. The website dooot.com explains:

.TEL is intended to use as a single publishing point for communication services, providing a different type of contacts directory service by including all kinds of contact information (name, surname, phone number) directly into the DNS without employing HTML, XML, WAP or any other user interface.

.TEL domain names will employ a totally new philosophy, it is like bringing communication to a new level. Some are worried that .tel is too difficult for people to understand, but then, 20 years ago people said that the internet was too sophisticated to live.

In simple words, it is a single place on the internet where other people can contact .tel domain owners through several useful and existing communications channels at their choosing much like the sample I created below.
So are the .tel domains a brand new way of communicating? I would have to say that's a big NO but it definitely makes communicating a lot easier by making contact details better organized and visible!

Gillian Shaw of the Vancouver Sun writes a cool story below about the new .tel domains which will launch in the next few months.

Asking a prospective date for a phone number is so last century. Starting soon, it will be "What's your dot-tel?" There's a new online gold rush gathering momentum as pre-registration ramps up for the Internet's new ".tel" domain that lets individuals, companies and organizations store all their contact information in a virtual phone book for life. Even though their phones numbers, their e-mail or location may change, their .tel remains the same. It can be updated and customized by the user so they can be found by anyone who knows their .tel name.

Or not, as the case may be since the .tel service also lets users decide how much contact information they want to share and whom they want to share it with. It can include everything from a home or office phone number, to a mobile phone, e-mail, Facebook, Twitter or any of the increasing number of ways people choose to stay in touch. In a customized twist on the old practice of an unlisted phone number, just like Facebook you can choose to share information with friends, keeping it hidden from others. Or you can share certain contact info with acquaintances and clients, saving your secret home cellphone number for only close friends and family. For people you really don't want to hear from or pesky telemarketers, you can send them on a wild goose chase by giving them bogus contact information. You can also map your location, a plus for businesses that can direct customers straight to their door with nothing more than a .tel name. "At a fairly straightforward level, it is a way for you to give someone your contact information just by giving them your .tel name," said John Demco, co-found and director of Webnames.ca and the man known as the godfather of .CA for his work in creating the Internet's .ca country code top-level domain for Canada.

"If you gave me your .tel name, I would be able to put that into my cellphone and I'd be able to contact you automatically with whatever contact information you have put with that." The virtual contact link, available for businesses starting in December and for individuals from Feb. 3, opens up a whole new subdivision of lucrative cyberspace real estate. Just as .com domain names were snapped up and resold at huge profits, there is an expectation that companies that are slow to put a cyberlock on their .tel address may find themselves paying a premium to someone who has snapped it up.

The registration is staggered into three stages to forestall some of the rush to stake claims and early birds who want to protect their contact identities will pay a premium to do so. Would be .tel holders must register their .tel name with a registrar like WebNames.ca, which just started pre-booking a few days ago and already has more than 1,000 registrants pre-booked. In a first-come, first served process, pre-booking is on for the three phases of the .tel rollout which include: In Sunrise, the phase open to trademark holders and owners at a premium price of $399 US and runs from Dec. 3, 2008 to Feb. 3, 2009. The premium price includes a three-year registration of the .tel name. In Landrush, open registration runs from Feb. 3 to March 24, 2009 at a cost of $375 US that includes a three-year registration of the name.

In General, open registration starts March 24 and costs $19.99 US, which includes a one-year registration of the name. The cheapest option but by March 24, the name you want -- particularly if it is a company name or a fairly common individual's name -- may be long gone.

Several popular websites offer dot-tel domains. It's just a matter of preference where to get them. Here's a few below:

1. Network Solutions

2. Domainit.com

3. EuroDNS

4. Easy Space

5. Moniker.com

Unlike in the past months, the .tel domains are increasingly getting popular with domain registrars. In recent press releases, Telnic.org has indicated that at least 100 registrars have either signalled intention to offer dot tel domains to the public or have actually signed up already.

"The overwhelmingly positive feedback that we have received from the registrar community about .tel has been spectacular," said Khashayar Mahdavi, CEO of Telnic Limited. "We are delighted that .tel is having such a huge impact well in advance of its commercial availability. It will fundamentally change the way in which people communicate and interact."

"What is incredibly rewarding is to see the broad international support .tel has already achieved from countries such as The United States, Germany, The United Kingdom, China, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Russia and right across Europe, but also in countries such as Malaysia, Romania, Pakistan and Turkey. .tel truly has international appeal," continued Mahdavi.

The .tel domains will serve as a database of contact information for the owners making it easy for people to publish contact information in one single page and it also makes it easier for other people to contact owners because dot tel domains are built in with applications that launch a particular communications channel like email or skype VOIP. In this regard, some people have coined .tel domains as a "whitepages killer."

These dot tel domains have been increasingly getting the good press it deserves. Rightfully so in my honest opinion. In it's own very simple and quite build up to its public launch in February of 2009.
In recent times, most website owners, bloggers and internet entreprenuers rely on their "contact me" web pages to publish their means of communications to customers or readers. Most business owners would agree that these web pages are one of the most important parts of their websites simply because it is a channel where they can solicit opinions and other feedback but more importantly it is a mean to gain more business by allowing them to contact you on a communication channel convenient to them. The .tel domains will change all that.

Some webmasters already predict that .tel domains will revolutionize how people will communicate in the future. I'd have to agree with them. Unlike any other internet domains anybody can own, dot tel domains will only publish your contact details and making simple for you to tell people how you can be reached. Instead of giving out your phone number or email address or website URL, you can conveniently tell your customers and potential business partenrs that you can be reached at yourname.tel simply because all your possible contact details are stored on your .tel domain.