ITU Concerned About .TEL Numeric Domains

The International Telecommunication Union has expressed concerns about Telnic’s proposal [pdf] to introduce numeric .tel domain names, saying they could cause confusion or conflicts

The International Telecommunication Union has expressed concerns about Telnic’s proposal [pdf] to introduce numeric .tel domain names, saying they could cause confusion or conflicts.

The ITU claims in a letter to ICANN the introduction of numeric .tel domains “raises a number of policy, legal, and practical implications on the potential usage of all-digit strings, not only under .TEL domain, but also under any future telephony-related new gTLDs, because of the possible perceived mapping of the ITU-T E.164 numbering plan into the Domain Name System (DNS), without appropriate procedures to ensure that rights of assignees of Recommendation ITU-T E.164 numbers are properly protected.”

The ITU concerns include that registrants could register domains with numbers the same as a company’s phone number. There are also concerns around national-only numbers like short codes (e.g., 112) and international ITU-T E.164 numbers. Further, the ITU wants to know how the numeric domains will be used and how will unallocated and unused numbers be used.