Starting today you can purchase your very own .tel domain name. Regulated through Telnic, you’re forced to submit your contact information through their forms in order to submit a request to purchase a desired domain. The opening up of this TLD will be held in three phases.

The current ‘Sunrise’ phase only allows for trademark holders to register their .tel domain name (and they have to pay a pretty penny to secure it – ), the rest of us will have to wait until the ‘Landrush’ phase which begins on February 3, 2009. It will then be opened up to the public on March 24, 2009.

This TLD brings a whole new slew of potential vanity domain names to mind so it should be interesting to see what comes out of it. I can only imagine how valuable names like ‘cantyou.tel’ will go for on the auction block come March.

The downside to this new offering is the limited usage that is permitted by Telnic. Right now you can’t even upload your own company logo to be used on the domain purchased and according to their website, its primary purpose is to act as some sort of global address/phone-book. Also, the pricing for the general public release looks like it’ll be close to $20 for a one-year contract – far more expensive than your typical .com or .net domain.