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."

After receiving several emailed alerts about the .tel domains launch in the next few months, I came across an opportunity to take my .tel domains experience to a new level by requesting a trial domain as part of the VIP .tel Beta Program.

I sent an email to vip@telnic.org and got a response from a nice guy named Justin Hayward. He was nice enough to tell me he's including me in the list of something. Well, I guess its better than nothing. LOL
A .tel domain will enable users to store all their contact information and keywords in one single page. This is pretty useful if you've got so many ways of being contacted: email, several phone numbers, chat, pagers, online webpages and social network pages. This would be particularly useful if you're known to be an expert at doing something or at least want to be searched for a specific job task. For example, you can indicate in your .tel domain keywords specs as S.E.O. or publicist or web designer. The .tel domains allow users to embed specific keywords they choose so other people and especially customers can find them on the web by search engine searches.

I'm really excited for this .tel domain lauch! If my application gets approved, I might be the First Filipino ever to own a .tel domain. I'll keep my fingers crossed! LOL

This month alone, I have seen a spike in web content about .tel domains which are set to launch by March of 2009. So much has been written and a lot of authors and domainers alike are raving about the usefulness of this unique domain name.

Here are a few juicy sneak peeks at this aweso.me domain extension, videos write-ups and all.

Tel domains video demo for businesses

Tel domains video demo for individuals

Tel domains Simulator - a nice trial to sample how .tel works!

Tel domains Launch Information

If you're looking to register .tel domains as soon they are available, EurDNS offers them for early registrars in the Sunrise period, Landrush and in the general public launch in march 2009. For those who want to grab some premium .tel domains, they are best to register in the landrush period before anybody else does at EuroDNS.

A recent press release from popular European registrar EuroDNS indicated that they are the first ICANN-accredited registrar that signed up to offer .tel domains later this year. The dot tel domains will be the latest top-level domain extension to be offered which is expected to draw huge interest to both businesses and individuals.

In the world of business, constant communication with customers and visibility of communication channels online are keys to improving any business' goals and and improve customer experience. Having a .tel domain can do just that because 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. Dot tel domains are NOT limited to business owners. Individuals can also own .tel domains without restrictions.

Telnic indicates that the value of The value of a .tel domain lies with the ability to host personal (or corporate) contact information directly in the DNS, which can then be universally accessible. This stands in contrast to the typical use of the DNS for other TLDs, in which the DNS only provides a mapping between domain names and IP addresses.

.Tel domains will be available and offered in three phases. The .tel domains Sunrise period between December 3 2008 to February 2, 2009 is reserved for trademark owners to register their domain names. The .tel domains landrush period starts February 3, 2009 and ends March 23, 2009. In this period, everyone will get a chance to reserve their own .tel domains for a premium fee. The .tel domains open registration will start March 24 when everyone can register dot me domains at regular fee on a first-come first-served basis.

Pre-registration of .tel domains are not possible. ICANN-accredited registrars signed up to offer dot tel domains will only entertain registrations starting December 2008. At the moment, only EuroDNS is offering .tel domains.

Related .tel domains press releases:
1. EuroDNS first Registrar to sign up to .tel domains.
2. Telnic sets launch date for .tel domains
3. New .tel Domain Uses DNS to Store Personal and Business Data

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