.Telnic changes will nuke existing .Tel sites

Owners of .tel domains will need to recreate their “sites” when new service is launched.

As I reported back in October, .Tel registry Telnic is removing restrictions on how the domains are used and hosted.

Currently, .Tel domain names must point to a “website” created on Telnic’s platform (it’s actually data in the DNS). This is going to change March 17, 2017, when .tel owners will be able to host their own sites with the hosting service of their choice.

Telnic will still let customers create contact pages using a free .tel platform instead of buying their own hosting, but the existing platform for doing this will be completely scrapped. This means the existing data on .tel domains will be wiped out. .Tel owners will have to export the data and recreate the .tel sites on the new platform.

This will be a pain for .tel fans. The news is worse for people that built directory sites on .tel domains using a subdomain structure. The new Telhosting platform will not support subdomains, so these customers will have to recreate their sites on a third-party hosting service.

The new Telhosting platform will go live on February 13, one month before the old one is retired. The Telhosting service will no longer be supported by registrars; Telnic will provide direct support itself.

(Hat tip: Anthony Mitchell)