An example would be http://www.soccer.tel, listed on this site you have ESPN’s mobile site amongst others, and the ease of access to content on this .tel is quite outstanding. I can load the browser on my phone, type in soccer.tel, scroll to the ‘Mobile’ section, and view the Headlines page of ESPN Mobile Soccer page all within 15 seconds. Quite a bit easier than typing in ”m.espn.go.com/soccer/index” I think you would all agree.

This style of directory has applicable use, and functionality that you really can’t fault. Simplicity is the name of the game and .tel has it.

Thanks

I sold my first .tel domain (storage.tel) for $3950 a few months ago. I think this is the most expensive sale to date of a .tel (to the best of my knowledge).

I must say that I was not expecting to see returns for a few years which is why I sold it so cheap!! (to recover the costs of my other .tels).

I believe that it is only a matter of time before this goes stellar.

I work for a global telecomms company and in my opinion .tel has enormous potential in terms of mobile communications. Mobile technology is evolving to circumvent the need for specific .mobi domains. .tel on the other hand offers a unique proposition. Walk into any phone shop and you’ll see all mobiles going touch screen. The technology is lining up nicely behind .tel from a mobile point of view!

Take up has been very diverse. There have been a lot of realtors, consultants and sales people but also a lot of small businesses and sole proprietorships.

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that there is no faster or more convenient way to exchange contact information than keying a name into one of the apps. Once you’ve got a dozen names or so, it’s hard to imagine why anyone would use anything other than a .TEL as a way to connect. The biggest problem is finding enough people with .TEL names, but each person that really uses their .TEL becomes an advocate and convinces a few more people of the value and so slowly but surely the numbers grow.

Every once in a while a local maven will discover .TEL which swells the numbers by several hundred people. George Moen of Blenz Coffee has been a big supporter of .TEL and has gone so far as to promote .TEL in many outlets. Patrick Marshall of Small Business BC is another influential user and local advocate. .TEL has also proven very popular with boards of local companies and non-profits including the local Board of Trade. .TEL seems well suited to people that know each other in passing or meet infrequently, especially in cases where you may know someone’s name but not necessarily their phone number.

Our experience is that .TEL is very much about the real world. It’s used by people who exchange business cards and are likely to speak on the phone more than by people whose business or interactions are more virtual in nature.

As a local registrar we’ve tried to walk the line between promoting a product we strongly believe in and pushing people to get their .TEL names through us. By supporting local .TEL initiatives rather than being at the centre of them, we’ve been able to help raise awareness and provide education. While this means a lot of people buy their .TEL names elsewhere, it does seem to be working.

While I haven’t personally been asked what my .TEL name is, one of my business partners has. I have however been invited to a .TEL Meet up arranged by someone I didn’t know and I’ve received e-mail that contains people’s .TEL name in their signatures. These occurrences, not initiated by us or those that we immediately influence, suggest to me that .TEL is indeed gaining some traction locally.

If pushed I would estimate that there are somewhere around 1000-1500 people and companies using their .TEL names on a fairly regular basis around the city and few more getting on board every day. In the scheme of things, this isn’t a large number but it’s the beginning of a base that makes it possible to bump into other .TEL name holders and connect with them. Which is pretty much what its all about.

but in order to find greater adoption, i think it may rest in the ability to dial a .tel. i’m not to up on the soft phone tech but i’m thinking that with the growth of Android OS it would be wise to focus there with some apps and maybe eventually some native support. I just bought the Motorola Droid and autmatically synced facebook contacts as phone contacts. i can envision being able to pull down a .tel list (opml?) of contacts in the same manner.