Here are 4 questions to Kash Mahdav CEO Telnic :

Can you tell us more about your service?
We believe that .tel is the biggest innovation since .com and certainly a huge jump forward for people accessing services over mobile devices. .tel does for communications what .com did for web content.Using .tel, individuals and businesses can simply and quickly store, publish and manage all types of communications, location information and keywords on the internet without needing a website. Users will be able to find and contact businesses and individuals really easily over their mobile devices simply by typing YourCompany.tel or YourName.tel. For example, if you go to Spain for a week-end and would like to rent a car won’t it be easier just to type into your mobile Hertz.tel and be connected? As the technology we use is not html based it is very cheap for the end user as well as being extremely fast.

What is your business model?
Like Verisign, which is the registry for .com, Telnic is the registry operator for .tel and therefore is not a retailer but a wholesaler. We work closely with ICANN-accredited registrars which act as our trusted distribution channel. In France, .tel is distributed by Bookmyname.com, Digitrad, Domaine.fr, Elb Group Inc, Gandi, Indom, Mailclub, Nameshield, Nordnet, and Ovh.

What are the projects, additional features you’re preparing?
We’re currently preparing some fantastic applications for BlackBerry, iPhone, Windows Mobile devices and Microsoft Outlook, which we’ve released in beta code for developers to take, test and use as templates for other applications. This will really change the address book from being a static and manually updated application to a live and dynamic one, where people will never have to remember to update it again. The developer community has been waiting for a platform like this to really excel in providing personalized, geo-functional features that an individual can control. We’re seeing a lot of interest in the mobile, geo-location functionality especially on the iPhone. We have also opened up our code and APIs for other developers to see the potential of the .tel and integrate their technologies and services into this. We are seeing significant interest from VoIP providers as well as others who see the .tel as a significant platform to deliver new communications technologies. More information can be found at http://www.telnic.org. Feedback has been very positive.

Url Beta test : http://servicesmobiles.vip.tel