.tel top-level domain launched

December 3, 2008 Domain names with .tel top-level domain have been put on sale for businesses and organisations purchasing their trademarks.

It is intended to be used for pages that contain contact details for individuals and companies, although websites using this domain will not be available for everyone to purchase until March 24 of next year.

This top-level domain is operated by Telnic.

Khashayar Mahdavi, CEO of Telnic, commented on the new domain. "The launch of .tel represents the most significant innovation in the domain name system since the advent of .com," he stated. "Essentially, the .tel offers businesses of all sizes a fast, efficient, adaptable and intelligent service that will let customers interact with them in any way they want. Anyone that wants to communicate better with their customers should purchase a .tel."

Describing today's launch, Telnic stated that currently "owners and licensees of trademarks registered with national effect may apply." The organisation also requires that "trademarks must have been applied for prior to 30 May 2008 and registered prior to the date the Sunrise application is submitted. Applications may be based on both word and figurative [device] marks that consist exclusively or predominantly of words."

According to a Google search for all sites using .tel, there are already 570 pages using the new top level domain.