BANGALORE, INDIA: Gone are the days of dotcom boom and and gone will be those of social networking sites such as Facebook and Orkut, when you can host your identity on the world wide web, and that too bereft a website!

Telnic, a UK-based registry operator, recently launched the .tel domain for individuals and businesses to share contact information with any device connected to the Internet without a website.

On this backdrop, Fabien Chalandon, vice chairman, Telnic and Bhavin Turakhia, founder and CEO, Directi, Telnic's India business partner, bare the facts behind this concept with CIOL. Excerpts:

CIOL: How will .tel benefit individuals and corporates?

FC: In short, better communications in a time of complexity. For businesses, complexity of communications choices and channels, and a complex global business arena. For individuals, complexity of social structures and the need to manage multiple online personalities.

Businesses can use .tel to set-up contact service hubs constructed to store all different contact details of those who buy their services, and manage the connections through whichever devices are live and connected at the time. Small businesses get an immediate global presence online akin to a listing in a traditional directory service, but under their their complete control, at a fraction of the cost of a listing in another service, such as traditional yellow page listings.

We have also enabled people to look up the data directly from the DNS without going on to the Internet through free-to-download applications for the iPhone, BlackBerry, and other devices, minimizing even further the cost to them accessing rich contact information.

In India, domain name registrars like Net4India and Directi are inviting applications for registering the .tel domain, which is available for about Rs 3,000 for three years with a processing fee of Rs 13,500. The processing fee goes to World Intellectual Property Organization. General availability started on March 24, which will be available for Rs 999 a year.

CIOL: How will the .tel directory get updated? Can you brief on how the domain will function?

FC: It empowers users to update it anywhere, anytime as long as they have fixed or mobile Internet access. .tel domains can be accessed via any mobile device with Internet capability, or through a PC. A simple, clear interface displays contact information, such as fixed and mobile numbers, email addresses, Skype IDs, social network addresses, website and location details with clickthough capability, making it exceptionally user-friendly.

.tel owners can display as much or as little contact information as desired and they can also set privacy controls, allowing them to determine what information is publically accessible. Information can be easily and instantly updated.

A free text field allows .tel owners to add key words that will make locating them via a web search a simple process. This is especially useful for professionals, who may wish to use their .tel to enhance their online visibility.

CIOL: .tel has already seen some action in terms of registration. So won't it get clogged after some time? Will the directory information be segregated after a period of time?

BT: It is true that .tel has already seen action in the Sunrise and Landrush periods, from including . Vodafone, Airtel, Clubmahindra, Timesgroup, Zoom and many more! The mere fact that global brands such as these have sought for .tel registration proves it worth.

However,clogging is quite out of question. .tel has a highly structured contact information base. A huge amount of data can be neatly structured and cross-linked inside each .tel domain.

It has an advanced domain content support services, which have high redundancy software and applications for managing a colossal amount of .tel domains. With these requirements in place, there wouldn't be a need for directory information to be segregated in the future.