Nuevas caracteristicas de los dominios .tel

Dear valued .tel community member,

As 2016 draws to a close, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support and being part of the .tel community. It is with great pleasure that we are also able to share with you some exciting news for 2017 which we believe will provide you with a new and enhanced product experience, greater flexibility and choice with respect to the application and use of your .tel domains and facilitate innovation in our namespace.


2016 – A Milestone year for Telnic and its community

2016 has been a milestone year for Telnic and one which we believe provides us with a firm platform to deliver on the feedback and requests of our community members and thus increase the value and usage potential of your .tel domain.

Lifting of usage restrictions

As a direct result of your feedback, Telnic has successfully negotiated the lifting of usage restrictions from your .tel domain. This means that you will now be able to use your .tel to design and host your own website and other digital services of your choosing. This freedom of choice has been a recurring request from community members and we are delighted to now offer you this option.

A new Telhosting platform

We are also marking this giant milestone in .tel’s history by providing our community with an optional, new and modernised Telhosting platform. The new platform has been designed based on extensive community feedback and usage patterns observed with the current system.

Staying true to our sponsored status, .tel is the universally recognised web address for publishing contact details online and is still primarily intended to serve the needs of individuals and businesses that wish to store their contact information using the DNS. On this basis, the new Telhosting platform offers you a compact, feature rich, single page solution to hosting and publishing your very own digital profile. Your new site can be totally managed using our new and free iPhone and Android smartphone apps or using our new desktop control panel and all for the same competitively low annual subscription fee.

We have set up an example digital profile page at http://telpage.tel for you to get a better feel for how you can leverage the functionality of the new platform to create a great looking .tel. With lots of new features such as more advanced custom design capability, PayPal integration, voucher and offers, PDF publishing and image library, we know you are going to enjoy and benefit from the new product experience to create a richer more customized and contemporary digital profile.

Some examples of great looking .tel domains created on the new platform using our desktop control panel or iOS and Android smartphone apps

Retiring the current Telhosting platform

As a result of launching our new Telhosting platform, we will be retiring the current Telhosting platform and there will be certain features such as sub domains, search and data privacy which will not be available in the new platform. Our attached FAQ provides a more detailed list of the differences between the current and new platforms.

We feel that our new platform offers you incredible value for money and is a great entry level hosting solution for establishing and managing your own digital identity and being found in search. If however, you feel that this new product is not for you then that is fine too and you will soon be able to utilize your .tel domain for other purposes of your choosing.

What is happening and when?

• From the 13th February 2017, Telnic will issue you (by email) with account details to the new Telhosting platform. Once you receive your new details, you can access your new account and start adding content.
• From 13th March 2017, any content that you have added to the new platform will be published to the internet from the new platform. From this date, content on the current platform will stop being published to the internet.
• It is important to note that Telnic will not be performing any Data Migration from the current to new platform. Your new account will be empty and it will be your responsibility to populate your domain on the new platform before 13th March 2017.
• From 13th March 2017, all usage restrictions will be lifted from .tel and you get to choose how you use your .tel domain.

Important information for directory builders and sub domain users

Telnic is very conscious and appreciative of the hard work and effort expended by many .tel owners who have developed directory sites using the sub domain functionality. Unfortunately, Telnic is unable to dual run the current and new platform and will not be offering sub domain functionality in the new platform. You are advised to back up your domain data from the current platform using the BACKUP function as soon as possible and by 12th March 2017 at the latest. This will produce an XML file containing all of your data which can then be used as a data source for populating your very own, independent database and service offering outside of Telhosting.

This data will not be accessible to after the 13th March 2017 therefore it is extremely important to make this backup copy if you wish to keep and use this data in future endeavours.

Should you wish to continue to host your domain on a version to the current Telhosting platform which incorporates sub domains, please contact us at cservice@telnic.org and we will discuss options available to you.

Customer support for the new platform

Up until now, your registrar or reseller has provided you with access to and support for the Telhosting platform. Starting on the 13th of March 2017, Telnic will assume this responsibility. For all new platform .tel hosting product support requests from 13th March 2017 onwards, please contact cservice@telnic.org. Questions relating to domain lifecycle activities such as registration, renewal, WHOIS updates etc should continue to be directed to your registrar or reseller.

Next steps

An FAQ is provided below to help you further understand the nature of the forthcoming changes and how they may impact you. These changes present new and exciting opportunities for the .tel community. Over the next few months, we will be sending out further communications to keep you fully updated with developments and timescales to ensure a smooth transition.

I hope that you are as excited as we are by this news and we look forward to working with you to grow the .tel community.  If you have any questions, please contact us at cservice@telnic.org

Kindest Regards,

Khashayar Mahdavi
CEO
Telnic Ltd

FAQ

1. When will the restrictions be lifted from .tel and what will be my options then be for using my domain?

All restrictions will be lifted from .tel on 13th March 2017. From this date, and subject to your registrar or reseller support, you will be able to use your .tel domain as a normal website, continue to take advantage of our free, new Telhosting platform or opt for a paid for Telhosting service which incorporates sub domains with a 3rd party hosting provider.

2. When will I be able access my new Telhosting account?

From 13th February 2017, Telnic will issue (by email) new Telhosting account details to all .tel owners. From this date, .tel owners will be able to log in and manage content on the new platform. Please note that this content will not display on the internet until the current Telhosting platform is retired on 13th March 2017.

3. What happens if I do not receive my new account details by end of February 2017?

If you have not received account details for your new Telhosting account by the end of February 2017, you should contact Telnic by sending an email to cservice@telnic.org confirming the domain name(s) in question. We will be using the email address that you have stored in your old Telhosting account profile for your new TelHosting account. Additionally we will use the email address that is associated with the domain registrant in our WHOIS to contact you. To ensure that you receive our communications, you are advised to ensure that these email addresses are current and accurate.

4. When will the current Telhosting platform be retired?

The current Telhosting platform will be retired and taken offline on 13th March 2017. You can continue to use the current Telhosting platform up to 12th March 2017 but not after this date.

5. What happens to my data on the current Telhosting platform after 13th March 2017?

.tel domain owner data that resides on the current Telhosting system will not be accessible after 13th March 2017. Any .tel domain owner that wishes to extract a copy of their data from the current system should run the BACKUP function from their current Telhosting account before 13th March 2017. This will produce an XML file containing all of their data which can be used either as a reference for populating their new account or as a data source for populating an independent and separate 3rd party hosting solution.

6. What happens if I do not make a copy of my data before the 13th March 2017?

If you do not make a copy of your data before 13th March 2017, the data will be deleted and not recoverable as the current Telhosting platform is being retired.

7. Why is Telnic not migrating my data from the current Telhosting platform to the new?

The current Telhosting platform is being retired and the new platform is not designed as a like for like replacement in terms of functionality or data structure. As such, there is no direct data migration path from old to new so you will need to log in and republish your contact records in order to take advantage of new functionality that does not exist in the curent platform. The vast majority of .tel owners only publish a single page of contacts and content and re-publishing will be a very quick exercise.

8. What if I wish to continue to host my .tel domain on a platform that supports sub domains?

The current Telhosting platform will be shutdown on 13th March 2017. If you would like to continue to host your .tel domain on a similar Telhosting platform that supports sub domains please contact cservice@telnic.org and we will help you to review hosting options

9. What happens to any new .tel domains that I register before 13th March 2017?

Up to 13th March 2017, you will continue to manage your .tel for live internet publishing purposes on the current platform.

10. What happens to any new .tel domains that I buy after 13th March 2017?

After 13th March 2017, you will receive information from your registrar and Telnic informing you of the process to claim your free hosting account for your new .tel domain. Telnic’s web site (www.telnic.org) will have a page dedicated to Telhosting management. On this page, .tel owners will be able to set up a new telhosting account, add .tel domains to an existing account as well as manage their domain(s) and request support.

Alternatively, you may opt to use your .tel for a purpose of your own choosing.

11. What happens if I do not access my new Telhosting account and add some contacts or content?

The content from your current Telhosting account will disappear on 13th March 2017. If you have not populated your new Telhosting account with any data by this date, your .tel domain will show a standard template page. Any content that you add after 13th March will automatically be published.

12. What happens if I take no action before 13th March 2017?

If you do not take any action before 13th March 2017, an account will be automatically created for you and your domains on the new Telhosting platform and we will send you the access details by email. Your new account and domains will remain empty and inactive until you login and add content. Your account and data on the current Telhosting system will not be accessible after 12th March 2017 so it is important that you backup any data you wish to keep before this date.

13. Is there a smartphone app to help manage my .tel domain content on the new Telhosting platform?

Yes. Telnic will have a new iOS and Android app that will enable .tel owners using Telhosting to fully manage their domain content using their smartphone. Free downloads will be available from our web site or from the Apple and Google Play stores. These apps will be available for download in March 2017.

14. What are the functional differences between the current and new Telhosting platforms?

The new Telhosting platform will be a single page product.  You can see an example of the new product in use at:  http://telpage.tel. It provides a more modern interface that allows the user to:

• Publish contact and content records
• Add PDF documents
• Add Promotional product/service offers
• Add Images and Video
• Sell Products and services via a PayPal interface
• Add custom design
• Add an image advert

The new platform does not support a number of features from the current platform detailed in the list below. The decision to exclude these features was based on customer feedback and usage statistics.

• Multiple pages or sub-domains
• Telfriends and private data support
• .tel search functionality
• Multiple profile support
• Telhosting product language support for Arabic, Czech, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Russian.
• SOAP API access for registrars and domain owners
• Google Ad sense integration

15. How will Telnic support the new Telhosting platform?

From 13th March 2017, all support requests from domain owners that use the new Telhosting platform should be sent to cservice@telnic.org . Telnic will handle these requests directly.

16. If I am not using the Telhosting platform, who do I contact for .tel domain support?

Starting 13th March 2017, if you have questions about your domain name and are not using the Telhosting platform, you should contact your registrar or reseller for support or the 3rd party hosting provider if you have opted to use this service.

17. Will domain owners be charged for the new Telhosting platform?

No. Telnic will continue to provide a free and optional Telhosting service to all .tel community members.

18. Will my domain registration and ownership status be affected by the Telhosting changes?

No. You will continue to be the owner of your .tel domain and there is no change to the contractual relationship you have with your registrar or reseller with respect to domain renewal and other domain specific activities such as transfers and WHOIS updates. Your registrar will still be your point of contact with respect to these key domain lifecycle activities.