It’s hip2b2

Yahoo Business has this article annoucing Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)’s approval of the dotTEL (.tel) Top Level Domain (TLD). The dotTEL TLD is intended to support regular DNS used including name to telephone number mappings using in VoIP. The dotTEL TLD has been assigned to Telnic Inc..

“The .Tel domain offers the first genuinely different use of domains since .com was first created. It will provide seamless integration of existing methods of communication with emerging technologies like Voice over IP (VoIP). This places the .Tel domain at the core of the next phase of Internet development,” said Khashayar Mahdavi, CEO of Telnic.

However, it does seem like just another TLD. This has the same possible use as all the other TLDs. I still believe that the previously approved E.164 ARPA reverse PTR domains are much more useful. Besides, these are already support by the open source Asterisk and the SIP express router.

This posting in the ICANN forum describes a rationale for introducting the dotTEL TLD:

The ITU and “e164.arpa”: The Pulver/Peek/Marschel “.tel” application starts from the assumption that the ITU has every right to advance the “e164.arpa” implementation of ENUM services and we fully expect this implementation to proceed.

Delegation Of Control: As articulated in the most recent ITU-ENUM updates, the “e164.arpa” implementation clearly delegates control over ENUM services to 200+ national PSTN regulatory entities. Within this vision, every country is being given the power to define if, how and when ENUM services will be deployed within their given country-code under the “e164.arpa” TLD.

Who’s Interests Are Being Served By “e164.arpa”? The “e164.arpa” model of delegating control to the existing PSTN regulatory structure may serve the best interests of the ITU but it clearly does not serve the best interests of the emerging IP-Communications industry.

Valid View From The Emerging IP-Communications Industry: Delegation of control of ENUM services under “e164.arpa” will have the tendency to both slow down, and dramatically complicate the deployment of IP-Communications services on a global basis.

What Is The Pulver/Peek/Marschel “.tel” TLD Position? The best interests of the Internet community in general and the emerging Internet-Telephony industry in specific will be best served by the creation of effective competition for the “e164.arpa” implementation of ENUM services.

Why Is A New TLD Required? The “e164.arpa” implementation has been validated by the IETF and by the ITU, and it is being presented to the market right now as “the standard TLD” for ENUM services. The role of the “.tel” TLD is to provide effective and appropriate validation for an alternative implementation of ENUM services. Without appropriate validation a level playing field will not exist in this important directory services space.

In short, non-country dominated TLD for VoIP? Maybe to avoid ccTLD assignment issues like in the case of a certain ccTLD? Hmmm…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 16th, 2006 at 12:16 am and is filed under Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.