A .tel domain name, like a virtual business card, is primarily for people / businesses who don’t have a dedicated website but need simple mechanism to put all their contact information on the web.
So if your name is Raghav, you can register a domain like www.raghav.tel and put your phone numbers, email addresses, IM ids, snail mail address, links to social networks, etc - all in one place.
How is .tel Different from .com
The main difference between a regular .com and .tel domain is that the latter stores all your different contact information at the DNS level (like whois database records) and you don’t have to worry about creating a website.
If you are willing to book a .tel domain for your own self (see example), just head over to Domain Monster as they are now accepting pre-orders. You can even try a .tel domain before buying one using this link.
Personally, I can’t think of a single reason why would someone invest in a .tel domain where there so many other services offering similar features for free*.
*The pre-order price for domain amit.tel is around $400 with a three year registration. Simply not worth it.
Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/internet/register-tel-domain-names/5773/
web: http://www.labnol.org/ email: amit@labnol.org
Reader Comments
That’s true. Definitely not worth it. But some mobile networks would rush to book domains on their names just not to let them off for others.
Can we still make a website out of it and host it somewhere?
Written by Rohit on 12.03.08
.tell is unlike anything before it as a TLD. I cant think of too many reasons why it wouldnt be worth having! Firstly, it is open rather than closed. Sure you can get contact details off places like facebook and other social sites but it is a closed website- you need to join first and you need to know your contact too. Dot tel is easily accessable to everyone very quickly. It’s also more convenient than yellow pages online because next year telnic will unveil it’s own online global database. You can also fill .tel with keywords and have it seo’d on google or yahoo etc. Bloody brilliant invention!
Written by James on 12.03.08
Telnic has specifically made it so the squatting incentive is removed. I’m sure the high price tag is just part of their strategy. Honestly I’ve been a bit surprised at the overall lack of buzz. It’s hard to say why, but I think the steep price has a lot to do with it.
Also, this article is incorrect in their example. You don’t type link , it would be name.tel. Simple.
Written by tel domain names on 01.25.09