.TEL Domain Names coming shortly!

What is .TEL domain name extension?

A .TEL domain name can be used to store, update and publish all your contact information, web links and keywords directly on the internet under your own unique .tel domain. Simple, fast and accessible from any device, .tel aims to provides a new internet standard for users to take full control over how and where people reach you.

The .tel enables:

• integration of any and all means of communication (i.e. Phone numbers, IM, VOIP, email, social media)
• real-time publishing of your contact information on the internet
• full ownership of your published data
• protection of your private data, only viewable by people you authorize
• simple structured navigation to easily reach the most relevant information
• high speed global access optimized for mobile devices
• multi-language, search engine-friendly structured information and keywords

.Tel Sunrise Period
Duration: December 3, 2008 at 15:00 GMT through February 2, 2009 23:59 GMT
Terms: Registrations open only to trademark holders and owners. Sunrise rules will follow a first-come first-served basis. There will be no premium list placed on reserve for later auction.
Price: $359 for a mandatory three-term registration term. Fully refundable only if another application was submitted before yours and passed Validation.

.Tel Landrush Period
Duration: February 3, 2009 at 15:00 GMT through March 23, 2009 23:59 GMT
Terms: You can register any name, even if it’s not your own or your own company’s name. the golden time for cybersquatters to register premium domain names, which would later result in domain disputes and hefty settlements running into millions!
Price: $299 for a mandatory three-term registration term. Fully refundable if application is not successful.

.Tel Open Registrations
Date: March 24, 2009 15:00 GMT
Terms: Register any name you may want.
Price: $18/year with one year minimum term. Fully refundable if application is not successful.

Sunrise orders being accepted since October 15

Sunrise period for .me domains till May 20

The sunrise registration period for the newly launched .me domain names, the generic top-level domain of the country of Montenegro, is on till May 20 and companies having their company names and product names as registered trademarks can book them before the registrations are open for all on a first come first served basis.

The .me registry claims to have received thousands of domain name registrations in the first week of the announcement of the availability of the .me domains.

The sunrise applicants include companies Apple, which registered apple.me, ipod.me and itunes.me. Microsoft, Skype, Digg, MTV and BMW have also registered their .me domain names.

I have my reservations about this pricey domain name, available from 110 to 200 Euros per year for a minimum of five years, which is predicted to be very popular.

With that kind of money being involved, not very many domainers would like to register too many domains. What do you guys say?

Domain Names costlier! .org hiked by 10%

Public Interest Registry, the registry for .org domain names, has notified ICANN that it is increasing the wholesale prices for .org domain names by 10%. The annual wholesale price for .org domain name registrations will be $6.75, slightly below the $6.86 rate that .com domains are expected to be available at later this year. As the profit margins are thin on domain registrations, the price hike will pinch not your favorite domain registrar’s pocket but yours!

Public Interest Registry has given no rational for the price increase to ICANN. As far as I can make out, it has the most obvious business interest in its mind – profits!

One can’t really blame Public Interest Registry for thinking about ways to increase its profits. After all, it has monopolistic control over the .org domain names! In fact, when .biz registry NeuStar raised prices last year, it was belligerent enough to state the reason for the price hike as – everyone else was doing it. What bullshit!

Also, there are talks that Afilias is all set to hike prices of .info and that NeuStar is already planning another hike in .biz prices.

I have always believed that this whole system of ICANN and domain name registries is rotten to the core. They all have a cartel of sorts. Why does the government allow such monopolistic market conditions to emerge? I wish some intelligent guy in the US will hire good lawyers and file a lawsuit against all this!

Why am I mad? Well, the simple reason is that I have loads of domains that I need to get renewed every year and even now it is quite a lot of money I have to spend. With the price increase it will be a whole lot of new burden.

Yes, yes… I know… you will ask me to monetize the domain to sustain themselves. But bro, monetization doesn’t work on its own. It requires a lot of time, skills and effort, which again costs money. A domainer like me is not a programmer or web designer or an SEO expert. To hire them, I would need to spend money. Domaining is getting costlier by the day. Tsk… Tsk…

if I keep it spending on sustenance, when do I get to enjoy it?

Hello world!

I am a domainer and I am into domaining!

Need I say any more about what this blog is gonna be like?

Three cheers to the power of domain names!