dotTEL Has Legs

dotTEL & Business

Even assuming that dotTEL makes for a poor online directory that can't compete with traditional, full featured websites, eventually business entities looking for the perfect 800, 866, 877, 888 or similar style phone number (to which thousands of companies already append two random digits followed by "4" - and then a four letter keyword that directly relates to the offering of a specific product or service (i.e, 1-8XX-XX4-GOLD), what could be easier or more memorable than just 4Gold.tel?

In combination with live call centers (think 1-800-DENTIST) or Interactive Voice Response systems (IVR) and/or other direct voice communications, dotTEL offers plenty of viable business solutions for the future.

dotTEL & Consumers

When a major cellular provider wakes up to the fact that it can gain a major competitive advantage by offering its customers the choice of either a standard ten digit telephone number or a custom alphanumeric dotTEL domain name of each customer's own choosing, dotTEL will be seen from an altogether different vantage point. Not only will the end user find this inviting, but it will create savings for cellular providers in the assigning, forwarding and porting over of numbers for mobile devices. In hindsight, the concept will appear so basic that people will wonder why this alternative wasn't offered years earlier.


Why?

The leap from ten digit phone numbers to domain names is far more intuitive than the universally accepted transition from IP numbers to domain names that took place well over a decade ago for websites. So successful and seamless was that transition, I suspect few people even recall that website addresses were once dominated by IP numbers - NOT keywords.

So forget about all the head-to-head website comparisons that form the basis for the primary criticism of dotTEL, and, if you must, think of dotTEL as nothing more than a replacement for a phone number. Period.

Any additional functionality is icing on the cake.


Epilogue

More than two years ago I learned about TelNIC and dotTEL while researching the concept of replacing phone numbers with domain names. It never occurred to me that part of that equation would include a standardized Rolodex style website template.

In other words, I have always believed that replacing a phone number with a domain name was, in and of itself, enough.

During landrush and general registration, while many domainers were scurrying for the usual PPC & directory based keywords that were in greatest demand, I was more interested in dotTEL domain names that would facilitate one click connections with call center, IVR and/or other real-time voice based communications from an ever expanding number of mobile devices:

Towing
CheckCashing
PaydayLoans
Candy
FlowerDelivery
FreeHoroscope
GoldCoins
GiftBasket
Greetings
MoneyOrders
AutoRepairs
Homework
JobSearch
Resume
Webmaster
Plumbing
Tux
TalkRadio
Tattoo
Romance

4Taxi
4News
4Lawyer
4Dentist
4Doctor
4Pizza
4Diet
4Gifts
4Tickets
4Sports
4Weather
4Work
4Toys
4Gold
4Silver
4Florist
4Hostel
4Autoparts

Despite hundreds of negative dotTEL comments posted over the last year, I have seen no compelling justification to abandon any of my assumptions that initially led me to TelNIC. In fact, with the number of mobile devices worldwide overtaking both desktop and laptop computers in total units in-service, the transition to domain based voice calling not only appears likely, but even inevitable.

If anything is doomed to failure, it's not the TelNIC concept, but rather the expectation that dotTEL is just another domain name.

It isn't.