TEL domain

[Ross Hettel <ross@xxxxxxx>]

To whom it may concern,

I learned of the .tel domain only about a year ago, and attempted to
register two domains for a personal website. It was the most painful and
error ridden process I've come across in my years of developing websites.

I tried two major registrars (enom and name.com) and both had major
problems with the registering of a .tel domain account - something I have
never experienced with any other domain, and it seems is unique to how
Telnic controls the .tel domain. It took nearly two weeks before I could
use the domains I bought, and as the TLD is an infrequent product of the
registrars, they did not seem familiar or able to help me sort out the
problems of registration. It was a horrible customer experience, and I
expect why the number of registrations are plummeting.

Ignoring the registration issues, the main product Telnic and the .tel
domain offers seems very limited. While the ability to create a basic
webpage with no coding skills is nice, there are a multitude of third party
companies that offer this for any regular domain. But more importantly, the
six or so page designs Telnic lets you choose are dated and clearly a sign
that they have ceased development on their main product.

I think the .tel domain would flourish if it was allowed to become a
regular gTLD where domain owners could host their own website. The current
situation is not working, as domain registrations have shown:
http://registrarstats.com/TLDHistoryChart.aspx?TLDName=TEL

-- 
Ross Hettel
*E: *ross@xxxxxxx */* rosshettel@xxxxxxxxx
*W: *rosshet.tel */* rosshettel.com