Domisfera wanted to know more about the real state of .tel domains, so asked for an interview with Benjamin Blumenthal, Director of Marketing of Telnic. This is the result, if they are enough and relevant questions and comments from the readers, Domisfera will make a second interview.

(1) [Domisfera.com] Could you tell us more about the history of .tel and when was it approved by ICANN?

[Benjamin Blumenthal] Telnic initially submitted an application to ICANN in 2000 for the .tel Top Level Domain (TLD). At that time, we believed that the internet and telephony industries would be converging quickly and that a top level domain would be needed to organize this space. With hindsight, our intuition has proven to be correct.

ICANN finally approved Telnic’s second application submitted in 2004. The final agreement was signed on May 30th 2006.
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(2) Can you explain in more detail how the .tel works?

The .tel will allow domain owners to publish and update in real time their contact information directly in the DNS.

This will allow them to decide how their friends, colleagues and clients should reach them, including but not limited to: VoIP, conventional telephony (fixed or wireless), email, SMS, Skype, AIM and many more.
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Deep Interview about .tel domains with Benjamin Blumenthal from Telnic
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