Telnic, the registry for .TEL has announced new dates as to when the .TEL domain extension will be launched. The Sunrise period for public bodies and trademarks is expected to begin in April 2008 and will be followed by a landrush phase in June/July 2008.

The purpose of .TEL is to provide individuals and businesses with a text-based naming and navigation structure for the Internet communications space.  .TEL is to bring together different communication medias such as phone, email and VoIP and will allow anyone to publish and control, in real time, how they can be reached.

Any individual or business will be able to initiate communication or access services simply by inputting AdamSmith.tel or .TEL on their Internet-enabled communications device.