Telnic Whois Service Now Available

As the Telnic (.tel) "go live" progresses, the registry operator has finally launched their WHOIS service.

It's available from the command line or via the web based whois

What makes the .tel whois slightly different is the little addition at the end of the output:

Contact information: Disclosure of contact data is restricted because
of UK and EU Data Protection legislation. The contact details for this
contact ID may be available by looking up a domain object in the WHOIS
system. The information can also be obtained through the Telnic
Special Access Service. Visit http://www.sas.nic.tel for more details.

Unlike other gTLDs, .tel offers a certain degree of security that other TLDs lack when it comes to the sharing of data via DNS.

You can read more about encrypting details held in NAPTR records on the Telnic site