EnCirca Commences .TEL Landrush

BOSTON, USA - Registrations begin today for .tel, the internet’s next generation directory service, according to a press release by EnCirca.
Slated as having the "potential to become a phone book for the Internet" by the New York Times, domain name registrar EnCirca starts processing landrush registrations on a first-come, first-served basis today at 10am EST.

Landrush continues through March 23, 2009, after which Open Registrations will begin.

"As more people access the Internet through mobile devices, .tel is going to play a critical role in how consumers will locate contact information online. All businesses that want to have an online presence have to think about how they'll be found on handhelds, or they risk becoming invisible," said Thomas Barrett, president of EnCirca.

A .tel domain provides organizations of all sizes a named listing with unlimited contact information in a global directory, accessible from any device connected to the Internet. Customers can then search for and find up-to-date contact information quickly at little or no cost to them, connecting with .tel owners dynamically.

Additionally, the .tel domain is search engine optimized through its ability to store indexed keywords, providing additional content for branded discoverability on the web. All of this is provided without any further investment over and above the cost of purchasing the domain name. It requires no technical skill to set up and can be managed by a simple dashboard.

"Trademark owners that want to secure their branded name shouldn't waste anytime; the .tel domains are really attractive as mobile Internet usage increases," added Barrett.

EnCirca was formed in 2001 and is accredited by the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and is an approved ICANN registrar for the .dot-tel domain, operated by Telnic Limited, the ICANN registry authorized to operate the .tel top-level domain.