Finally, .tel domain name is open for registration

[Kalyan]

Finally, .tel domain name is open for registration

Ram Malhotra, CEO of a multi-billion dollar MNC, has changed his mobile number thrice in 12 months. But neither his clients nor his
employees have had any problem with it. They just remember his .tel domain – RamMallhotra.tel and reach him anytime, despite the change in his contact information.

This scenario may well be a reality by later this year. After years of blockade by the telecom operators, mainly the International Telecom Union (ITU), the .tel domain name is open for registration. Companies like Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, NewsCorp, HP, Vodafone, HBO, and in India - the Tatas, Aircel have submitted applications for the registration of their .tel identity as it closes by February 3. Even SMS vote based shows like American Idol have applied for a registration.

The .tel domain stores only contact information of an individual or organisation which includes – mobile number, email id, address, skype contact, weblink and home or office address. "We plan to replace the mobile number with just a name. So by just clicking on a person's .tel id, you can get all his contacts on your mobile phone or PC.

The contacts can also be made private or public," said Fabien Chalandon, vice chairman of Telnic.org, the UK-based company, promoting the .tel top level domain (TLDs). Globally, Deloitte has partnered with Telnic for the registration.

In India domain name registrars Net4 and Directi are inviting applications for registering the .tel domain, which is available for about Rs 3,000 for three years with a processing fee of Rs 13,500. "The processing fee will go to World Intellectual Property Organisation. The individual registrations will open on March 24, which will be available for Rs 999 for an year," says Desi Valli, COO of Net4, India's largest domain name registrar.

Net4 is also in the process of developing an application for those who don't have a GPRS enabled mobile phone.
"Through this software, one can just send a SMS to a particular short code which will cull the contact information and send back in an SMS format. The SMS will be chargeable," adds Mr Valli. Apart from Net4, Mumbai based Directi has been assigned a registrar in India. Globally, there are about 900 registrars accredited to register .tel domain names.

Though Telnic was founded in 2000 with an idea to start the .tel domain, it took them almost six years to get an approval from ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). Telnic claims to make mobile number portability useless.

The .tel domain is the first domain which claims to work on the domain name server (DNS). Traditionally, when a website address is typed in a browser, the DNS returns an Internet Protocol (IP) address comprising four numbers.

But .tel works in a different way. It returns the contact information of a person when one types a name.tel in the browser. Telnic claims to return a result within a fraction of a second. Telnic's vision is to become a defacto telecom standard, replacing the need to remember contact information. But whether .tel will succeed like the .com, only time will tell.

source : economic times