ICANN Approves .tel Domain

ICANN approved the creation of the .tel top-level domain Monday, which supporters say would provide a basis for navigation and naming of Internet communications. Proposed by Telnic in 2000, the group said Internet users would benefit from navigating directly to a way to communicate with organizations that run Web sites.

"The days of needing to remember several telephone numbers, numerous VoIP or instant message identities and other points of contact for our social and professional networks are over," Telnic CEO Khashayar Mahdavi said in a statement. "By leveraging innovative DNS technology, the .Tel domain will allow anyone to publish and control, in real time, how they can be reached." The company plans to release free applications that would be able to take advantage of such services.