Two items of note from Telnic, the Registry operator for the .TEL domain extension:

MX Records for .TEL domains

First up, Telnic has let us know that they will be updating the TelHosting platform on Thursday June 4th, 2009. The big news in this release of the web-based application where you manage your .TEL domains is the addition of MX Record management. We’ve had a couple of requests to add the ability to add MX records to .TEL domains since the launch of .TEL a few months back.

With this new release, it will be easy to add MX Records and to offer .TEL domain owners the ability to use their .TEL domains as email addresses.

.TEL domain owners can log in to the TelHosting platform at http://telhosting.opensrs.com/. There won’t be any downtime associated with the upgrade to the TelHosting platform, although Telnic suggests that users logged in at the time of the upgrade might experience a loss of session, requiring a re-login.

We’ll follow up with a few screenshots showing how to manage MX Records on Thursday, once the new version is up and running.

Superbook iPhone App

Also of note is the release of a new .TEL app for the iPhone called Superbook. Users of Apple’s popular phone and mobile Internet device can grab the app for free from the iPhone App Store. There’s more information for developers at the Telnic developers website. Interestingly, .TEL releases all its apps as open source projects, so you could download the source and create your own customized version of the app if you were so inclined.

Superbook allows iPhone users to lookup .TEL domains, act on the information (including dialing the stored phone numbers). It also uses the location services built into the iPhone to find .TEL entries based on your current location and the location data stored in the .TEL domain.

This application opens up some interesting possibilities for .TEL domains, especially considering the location integration. Users could use the app to find companies or retailers that are nearby, or use the app to keep track of friends.

The app is free.

Telnic has just released two new free apps that allow mobile users to use and manage .tel domains. There’s one app for the iPhone and one for Blackberry users as well.

Telnic says, “My.tel, the iPhone application, allows a user to log into their TelHosting account directly from their iPhone and update or manage all their .tel contact information and details, making it simple and easy to update their .tel on the go.”

Over on the Blackberry side, the .TEL application goes further, according to Telnic, “allowing users to easily lookup .tel domains and save the data in their Blackberry address books. It also enables them to switch profiles, accept friend requests for private data and synchronize their contacts with live .tel data so their address book is always up to date.”

There is more information on both apps at: http://telnic.org/community-applications.html.

Downloading these applications to you iPhone or BlackBerry is easy. Just head to http://apps.telnic.tel in the browser on your Blackberry or grab the iPhone app from the link below.

General availability of .TEL domains went live yesterday and response so far has been overwhelming! The registry has done a great job promoting .TEL and has created this very entertaining video aimed at consumers. It illustrates just one way in which a .TEL domain might be useful for an individual. In a further savvy move by the registry, they are developing an iPhone application that will allow a user to access .TEL domains and edit information directly from an iPhone.

If, as a Reseller, you’re still a little unclear about the opportunities .TEL offers, have a look at Telnic’s page with videos of several media appearances, including CNN, Bloomberg Business News, CNBC and the BBC.

These are early days, and as with all new TLDs, there is no time like the present to encourage customers to obtain their desired domain name.

P.S. Here’s a link to the unbranded video if you’d like to use it on your own site.

Since late last year, we’ve been talking about .TEL, the newest Global Top-level Domain (gTLD). Over the past few months, .TEL has gone from the Sunrise period to Landrush. During those times, trademark holders and then anyone who wished to register .TEL domains at a premium price could apply to own .TEL domains.

Now, we’re just a couple of days away from General Availability (GA) when the floodgates will be opened and everyone will be able to register their .TEL domain for the usual yearly registration fee of $8/domain year, plus the ICANN Fee of $0.20 and your OpenSRS Management Fee.

General Availability for .TEL begins officially on March 24th, 2009 at 15:00 GMT/UTC and as with the other two launch events, domains will be awarded on a first come, first served basis. .TEL Registrations will be available via the RWI and API at that time. Please note that there is a 15-hour blackout period between the closing of Landrush at 23:59 UTC/GMT on March 23rd, 2009 and the opening of the Registry for GA.

Resellers using OpenSRS Storefront may also want to sell .TEL domains and .TEL will be available in Storefront, although it will be disabled by default. You’ll need to enable it within the Storefront Manager.

Keep in mind that as Resellers, you are responsible for supporting your customers for .TEL domains and TelHosting. If you have any questions about how TelHosting works, Telnic provides quite a bit of information about the platform at their website. We suggest that you make yourself aware of how the platform and the
technology work.

A great way to learn about .TEL is to register your own .TEL domain and try it out. This can also provide a showcase for your customers that will demonstrate the benefits of .TEL and what it offers.

You may also wish to view the archive of the webinar that we held along with Telnic representatives a few months back. And, as usual, more information on .TEL can be found in our documentation.

You should be telling your customers about .TEL and explaining how it works. Here’s some reasons why everyone should purchase .TEL domains:

1. They are easy to use. You don’t need any web-design skills, or pay for hosting. Everything is saved within the innovative .TEL system.
2. They help people get found online. You can easily publish your contact information including social network profiles, email addresses and even your exact location. And you can protect any or all of that information using the privacy features built into .TEL.
3. They help grow your business. .TEL is accessible from the web, via any browser, and even through the iPhone, BlackBerry or other mobile internet devices like mobile phones.
4. They will boost your search ranking. .Tel listings are optimized for search engines like Google and Yahoo Search.
5. They can be used with your existing website. instead of a contact page, link to your .TEL domain and take advantage of the real-time changes and easy updates that .TEL provides.

The launch of .TEL has been interesting to watch, and now as GA approaches, we’re seeing lots of momentum around this new gTLD. Make sure you are a part of it.

Landrush for the new .TEL gTLD opened just a few minutes ago and already the news is spreading around the world about this interesting new domain extension. OpenSRS is now live and connected to the Registry for Landrush orders and all pre-orders in our system have been processed.

There has been a ton of media coverage around the launch of .TEL. Here’s a sampling:

• The Times Online – New .tel domain names set to create the world’s virtual phone book
• The Telegraph – The public will get the chance to be part of the world’s largest phone book
• Metro – Millions of new internet addresses go up for sale today under .tel
• GoMoNews – Telnic opens .tel mobile Internet domain to all
• TreeHugger – .tel Domain Could Mean Global Online Phone Book
• L’Atelier (in French) – Les PME n’ont plus besoin de site Web pour être visibles en ligne

The CEO of Telnic, appeared live on the American business news network CNBC this morning as well (view online). And .TEL received worldwide media coverage on BBC television and other radio and television stations throughout the day.

There’s a lot of buzz surrounding .TEL right now. As Landrush proceeds, expect more and with General Availability less than two months away, now is the time to start educating your customers about the value of .TEL domains.

.TEL Landrush is now just around the corner – beginning on February 3, 2009. As mentioned previously, OpenSRS is full participant in the launch of .TEL. You’ll be able to start pre-ordering for starting at 0500 GMT on Friday, January 30th, 2009. At the same time we turn on Landrush pre-orders, we’re turning off Sunrise Orders.

.TEL Landrush is structured fairly simply. Telnic, the .TEL registry, isn’t holding auctions for high value or premium domain names nor is it withholding any names from the Landrush (except for a few names on a “reserved list” as required by ICANN and as needed for registry operations).

There are going to be a ton of great .TEL domain names available in many different languages. Some examples include geographic names like newyork.tel or generic names like pizza.tel. During Landrush, everyone has a shot at grabbing one of these potentially valuable names. Each is offered at a fixed price ($329.60US including a three-year registration) on a first-come, first-served basis.

Landrush pre-orders are fairly simple, but there are a few things you should be aware of:

1. Pre-orders are not guaranteed. When the Registry opens, we’ll start submitting orders along with everyone else.
2. When a pre-order is submitted, we’ll put $275 on hold in your Reseller account. If that order is successful when Landrush officially opens, we’ll charge through the full $329.60. If the order is not successful, we’ll remove the hold and you’ll pay nothing. That’s a bit different from the Sunrise period during which the $275 fee was payable to the Registry regardless.
3. ALL Landrush pre-orders submitted to pending will be processed. If you don’t wish for a pending order to be processed, you must cancel it prior to the Registry opening.

Also of note is that ordering via the API will also go live at 0500 GMT on Friday, January 30th, 2009. The documentation has been updated to reflect the changes and additions.

Telnic noted that during the Sunrise period, many companies realized the value of .TEL and registered their ‘brand’.tel, including Starbucks, Microsoft, Google and CNN. It’s expected that Landrush will be busy as people try to grab some of the high-value .tel domains, and also jump in and ensure that they get the .tel for their company or organization.

For Resellers that submitted .TEL Sunrise Applications, Telnic has provided a lookup tool to determine the status of Sunrise applications.

We’ll have more about .TEL in the coming weeks and months as we get closer to the General Availability and the official, full launch of this innovative new domain extension on March 24th, 2009.

Thanks to all who attended the .TEL webinar we held Wednesday. We hope you found it informative and useful.

For those who were unable to attend, the full archive of the webinar is embedded below. Additionally, we’ve also converted both presentations into PDF format for download as well.

• Adam’s presentation (PDF)
• Lars’ presentation (PDF)

We tried as best as we could to answer all of the questions that came up during the webinar. However, if you feel as though we missed yours or you didn’t get a satisfactory answer, feel free to ask again in the comments and we’ll try to get you the answers you need.

A reminder that you can try out .TEL for yourself and obtain your very own VIP .TEL domain. Head to http://www.telnic.org/vip/ and give it a try. You’ll be able to see the management interface that Telnic provides and gain a better understanding of the innovative .TEL concept.

Here’s the archived presentation (which will play on an iPhone or iPod touch through some sort of new blip.tv magic – we love blip.tv):

Telnic, the Registry for the new .TEL extension is providing marketing materials that you may wish to use in your efforts to sell .TEL domains to your customers. In addition, they’ve also created a short video presentation about .TEL that you may choose to embed or use on your websites.

The marketing materials are available for download as PDF files in a bunch of different languages. They’ve also provided the source files for all languages (QuarkExpress format for those with the capability to edit Quark files). Here’s the links:

• Multilingual PDF files
• Video (login with the username: Marketing.tel / password: SunriseDec3

As a reminder, our .TEL webinar takes place at 1:00 P.M. ET today (Wednesday). Those unable to attend the live presentation will be able to view an archived version and download the presentations as PDF files. We’ll post that information to the blog later today.

.TEL Sunrise is just around the corner. We’re now taking Sunrise pre-orders via the RWI as mentioned last week. Also as promised, we have details for you about the exclusive webinar for OpenSRS Resellers that we’ve arranged with Lars Jensen, Global Sales Director, Telnic Limited.

Joining Lars will be Adam Eisner, Product Manager, Domains, OpenSRS. Together they will get you up to speed on .TEL and make sure that you have all the information you need if you are planning to participate in Sunrise and Landrush. At the end of the webinar presentation, there will be a question and answer session for you to ask any questions you might have, and get answers straight from the source.

Prepare and Profit from .TEL

Join us online on Wednesday, November 26th, 2008 at 1:00 P.M. EST (Convert to my time zone).

We’re using GoToWebinar for this online webinar. GoToWebinar is easy to use and will allow you to participate in the webinar in any modern web browser on either Microsoft Windows or Apple OS X.

We hope you will find this webinar valuable.

For Resellers with customers looking to secure their .TEL domains during the Sunrise period for registered trademark holders, we are now taking pre-orders via the Reseller Web Interface (RWI).

You’ll see the “.tel Sunrise Early Domain Registration for Registered Trademark Holders” in the Domain Registration Administration section of the RWI as soon as you log in. Submitting a sunrise pre-order is easy, but you will require supporting documentation to prove that the Registrant is a registered trademark holder for the domain being applied for.

Also of note is that we’re working with Telnic to offer an exclusive webinar for OpenSRS Resellers with Lars Jensen, Global Sales Director, Telnic Ltd. to help you better understand .TEL and the opportunity it presents. We’ll have more details about that webinar in the coming days.

In an email we sent to all Resellers on Friday, we provided information on how you can get your own .TEL domain to try out during the Sunrise period free of charge. That includes access to the management interface that gives you the ability to add and change contact information for your .TEL domain and provides you with a way to better understand the product and how to market it to you customers.

Lots more information on .TEL is available from Telnic.org.