200,000th .Tel Domain Registered

Telnic, the UK-based .tel registrar, sent out a press release yesterday announcing that after two months of general availability, 200,000 .tel domains have been registered.

Telnic CEO Khashayar Mahdavi had quite a bit to say about the event:

This is a truly remarkable milestone considering current economic conditions and with the attention of the world on global events, but proves that a simple but compelling service under the control of the individual has significant potential. As early adopters start using the .tel as their single point of contact, more and more individuals and businesses are seeing that it’s an incredibly useful way to manage the complexity of communications choices in one single place online.

Unlike typical domains, .tel names are tied directly to a DNS system instead of an IP address. They are designed for publishing contact information like phone numbers and IM addresses and integrating them into other applications, such as VOIP.

Telnic has also been nominated for the 2009 World Technology Award in Communications Technology.