Dot-tel, which was approved as a sponsored TLD by ICANN in May 2006, is designed to be used by individuals and businesses to publish contact data, such as telephone numbers, email addresses, domains and social networking information.
The sunrise period, in which trade mark owners can register their rights, will last from 1500 GMT on December 3 2008 to February 2 2009. Registrations will last for three years.
This will be followed by a landrush period, with premium-priced registrations, running from February 3 to March 23 2009. Registrations become open to all from March 24.
During the sunrise period, owners of word marks or device marks that consist exclusively or predominantly of words and that were applied for before May 30 2008 and registered before December 3 2008 can apply.
Applications will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis, and will be validated by Deloitte.
There will be no auction and no reserve list. The acceptance or rejection of the application can be challenged during a 10-day period.
Dot-tel is designed to appeal to both individuals, who want to make their contact information available in one place, and businesses, who will be able to use sub-domains to provide a variety of information.
During the landrush and general access periods, applicants will also be able to apply for generic domains, such as hotels.tel, in which they can sell sub-domains (such as hilton.hotels.tel or hilton.newyork.us.hotels.tel).
Individuals who register .tel domains can opt-out of providing Whois information, though that information can be sought under certain circumstances.
Representatives of telnic, which runs .tel, told Managing IP the new domain would “remove the friction” in the internet, by making information available in a simple format, that can also be accessed from mobile devices.
Dot-tel applications can be made through ICANN-accredited registrars, though none of the main registrars is advertising them yet.
Prices will also be set by registrars. Telnic declined to disclose what the wholesale price is, but said that prices for corporate applicants would probably be in line with other recent TLD launches.
