ICAAN Approves the .tel Domain

While ICANN was ruthless when it came to rejecting the .xxx domain, things were completely different with the .tel one.

ICANN (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) unanimously approved the creation of the new .Tel Top Level Domain (TLD) and awarded the contract to Telnic Limited.

"The .Tel domain offers the first genuinely different use of domains since .com was first created. It will provide seamless integration of existing methods of communication with emerging technologies like Voice over IP (VoIP). This places the .Tel domain at the core of the next phase of Internet development," said Khashayar Mahdavi, CEO of Telnic.

The .Tel domain will enable people to reach a business from any Internet enabled device (computer or mobile) simply by typing, for example, "Hertz.tel". The user will then be able to connect directly to a Hertz representative or navigate through a list of services that Hertz has to offer, the Telnic press release mentions.

"The days of needing to remember several telephone numbers, numerous VoIP or instant message identities and other points of contact for our social and professional networks are over. By leveraging innovative DNS (Domain Name System) technology, the .Tel domain will allow anyone to publish and control, in real time, how they can be reached," Khashayar Mahdavi added.