The .tel TLD is due to go live in December
Telnic to take .tel domains live in December
/v3-uk/news/1952649/telnic-tel-domains-live-december
12 Sep 2008, Iain Thomson , V3
British firm Telnic has announced that its .tel top level domain (TLD) name directory will go live in December.
The company's .tel domains will store constantly updated contact information, web pages and keywords on a single page that does not need building by the user.
Users can protect their data using 128-bit encryption and mask their details to casual users while allowing friends and family full access.
"Some have said this is a spammer's dream but they do not understand the system," Justin Hayward, communications director for Telnic, told vnunet.com.
"All the details are completely private and they are not stored anywhere else. There are also no data ownership terms and conditions so if the company you use gets bought the new owners do not get access to your information."
Hayward jokingly referred to telnic as the "longest start-up in history". The company began work on the project in 2000 and took its proposals for a TLD to ICANN in 2002.
It then did a full proof of concept and reapplied in 2004 and got approval two years later. Now the initial phase will go live in December with a full roll out in February.
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Why Pay?
However, if you don't want to pay a not unsubstantial annual recurring charge indefinitely, you can just use other free online address books, where you can be found via Google on a name search. Most people use Google to find other people.
For instance, you can get a free listing at WikiWorldBook which enables you to be easily found via Google, and messaged via the website. You can publish as much or as little of your contact information as you want.
The website's message gateway allows users to be contacted without having to reveal their email address. After checking any messages for spam, the message system forwards on the messages to the registered user's email account, so they don't have to return to the site. Uniquely, the person contacting them doesn't have to be registered, thus enabling people to reconnect as easily as possible.
Posted by Ben Leefield, 10 Feb 2009