Is the new “.tel” domain launching today more than just a pretty web interface to DNS? Is it something really unique? Is it a new service that couldn’t be easily replicated elsewhere?

In case you haven’t been following the subject, a company called Telnic has launched a new top-level DNS domain “.tel” today. Today, December 3rd, is the launch of the “Sunrise” period where companies can (for a high price) obtain the “.tel” domain associated with their trademark.

The point of “.tel”, though, is to not just be “yet-another-top-level-domain” but rather to be a global directory of information—with users/companies having control of their own information.

With the first part of the launch happening today there has been predictably been a good bit of coverage in the blogosphere. Danielle Belopotosky had a great piece up on the NY Times Bits blog, Techmeme has a flow of links to stories and I am sure more will be appearing.

I would, though, suggest people wanting to understand the goals of the service go back and listen to our Squawk Box conversation on September 9th with Telnic’s Justin Hayward (www.justin.tel). The part about .tel starts at about the 17:50 minute mark of the podcast and literally did go on for about forty minutes. We put poor Justin through a bit of a wringer as he may not have realized he was walking into a conference call that included a bunch of DNS geeks. He presented his vision of how .tel would work and answered the many questions we threw at him. You can also watch the video of Telnic’s DEMO Presentation where Justin is obviously pitching the .tel domain to the DEMO audience. (And yes, the Justin in the video is the same one who was on Squawk Box.)

While my friend Jonathan Jensen is quite enthusiastic about the .tel domain, I remain a bit troubled by a few aspects of it.

Read the rest of the article at Disruptive Telephony…