Launch of sunrise period for '.tel' gTLD announced

Telnic Limited, the UK-based operator of the proposed ‘.tel’ generic top-level domain (gTLD), has announced that the ‘.tel’ sunrise period will commence on December 3 2008. 

 

The launch process will be as follows:

The ‘.tel’ extension is essentially intended to be a universal text naming and navigation system for contact information and related content accessed from internet-enabled communications devices. In short, internet users will be able to initiate communication with, or access services provided by, an individual or a company simply by inputting the name of that individual or company into their web browser followed by ‘.tel’. The corresponding webpage will group together all the contact information of that individual or company (eg, phone and fax numbers and email addresses).

 

The sunrise period will allow holders of eligible registered trademarks to apply for a ‘.tel’ domain name before the registration of domain names under the ‘.tel’ gTLD is open to the general public. According to Section 5(2) of the Sunrise Policy, a trademark must meet the following criteria in order to be eligible:

Telnic will consider sunrise applications on a first-come, first-served basis. If an application is rejected, the applicant will have 10 days to file an appeal. If an application is accepted, third parties will have 10 days to file a challenge. The sunrise period will end on February 2 2009 and will be followed by the landrush period.

 

The landrush period (February 3 2009 to March 23 2009) will be open to everyone. Any domain name that will not have been registered during the sunrise period will be eligible for landrush registration at a premium price. From March 24 2009 onwards, the premium price will no longer apply.