What's your dot tel?

May 17, 2006 2:26 PM

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.
posted by airguitar (20 comments total)

why on earth is a new tld needed for this purpose? Why not any domain name? This makes no sense.

Either then application will accept a domain name, or they will not.
posted by delmoi at 2:37 PM on May 17, 2006

Neeeeeeeeeeeat!
posted by SweetJesus at 2:37 PM on May 17, 2006

car.tel
posted by Mwongozi at 2:39 PM on May 17, 2006

Oh well, at least this will provide a way for people to do new domain hacks, etc.
posted by delmoi at 2:42 PM on May 17, 2006

http://www.onelook.com/?w=*tel&ls=a
posted by airguitar at 2:45 PM on May 17, 2006

why on earth is a new tld needed for this purpose? Why not any domain name?

Technically, this domain is intended for VOIP &c. providers, e.g. it isn't so much that skype.com also needs skype.tel, as that Skype customers will be able to get VOIP "phone numbers" in the .tel namespace. In other words, you'll be able to give a DNS address to your internet phone.

Politically, this is because ICANN is basically only expanding the TLD namespace when they have a proposal they like from a worthy entity who they believe will manage it properly. ICANN seems to like the purpose-oriented TLD approach.
posted by dhartung at 2:51 PM on May 17, 2006

I wonder if ho.tel will be snatched (sorry) up by an escort service before any reputable hotel can claim it.
posted by emelenjr at 2:51 PM on May 17, 2006

why on earth is a new tld needed for this purpose?

It's attempting to replace any internet-enabled communication device's phone number with a .tel domain. It's trying to do for phone numbers what the TDL did for IP addresses.
posted by SweetJesus at 2:55 PM on May 17, 2006

LONDON, May 15 /PRNewswire/ -- ICANN (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) unanimously

It's a damn press release.
posted by MikeKD at 3:14 PM on May 17, 2006

This post is spam.
posted by IronLizard at 3:23 PM on May 17, 2006

www.ho.tel
www.mo.tel
www.in.tel
www.coin.tel/pro/

This is fun!
posted by Faint of Butt at 3:25 PM on May 17, 2006

Finally, I can start my long awaited cheese blog, neufchâ.tel.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 3:44 PM on May 17, 2006

why.do.we.need.more.do.main.nam.es?
posted by blue_beetle at 3:52 PM on May 17, 2006

Technically, this domain is intended for VOIP &c. providers, e.g. it isn't so much that skype.com also needs skype.tel, as that Skype customers will be able to get VOIP "phone numbers" in the .tel namespace. In other words, you'll be able to give a DNS address to your internet phone.

Which I can't do now because...
posted by delmoi at 4:06 PM on May 17, 2006

Which I can't do now because...

I didn't get it either, I guess next year if you have a Moto Q and you punch in delmoi.tel you're going to get the voicemail box on your VOIP wifi phone.
posted by airguitar at 4:09 PM on May 17, 2006

Sounds like the same idea as dialling a company name on a phone pad.
posted by Podnosh at 4:18 PM on May 17, 2006

Which I can't do now because...

... no one registrar controls a single top-level commercial domain? Presumably, Telnic will use other resource records for identifying phones, etc.
posted by me & my monkey at 6:26 PM on May 17, 2006

faq

The point seems to be that if you have a .tel-enabled device, and connect to a .tel domain, either the server will respond with the appropriate service for your device, or offer you a menu based on the options you have available (instant messaging, bluetooth mobile, Netscape 1.0, etc.). Call this guarded interest. Whether it proves useful will depend on ISV adoption.

Really, there's no magic to DNS, it just maps names to numbers. Back in the very early days of the web, you often had to direct your web browser at a particular port (e.g. http://www.metafilter.com:80/). It's as if they had set up a TLD named .web where you were automatically pointed at port 80 just by using metafilter.web, that's all.

The benefit for corporate customers is fairly obvious -- it simplifies their net-facing architecture. They don't have to have example.com sniff and hand off VOIP traffic, for example. It also potentially vastly simplifies the setup for vendors selling internet telephony devices to the consumer market.

Again, caveats. Are the big telcos signed on? We'll see, I guess.
posted by dhartung at 6:40 PM on May 17, 2006

one day closer to getting a barcode stamped on my head. yay.
posted by Doorstop at 7:45 PM on May 17, 2006

dont.ask.dont.tel
posted by jimfl at 7:00 AM on May 18, 2006