A leading Internet authority has approved a new set of Web addresses to serve, in effect, as Internet telephone numbers.

At a recent meeting, ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) ICANN tapped London-based Telnic to administer the addresses. The company hasn't yet set a hard date for operations to begin, according to a note on its Web site.

ICANN's unanimous OK comes six years after the company first applied for the rights to distribute these kinds of Web addresses.

Click here to read more about .tel's long history.

The idea here is to use a Web address that ends in .tel as one would use a telephone number. Steering a Web browser towards www.hertz.tel, for example, would activate an Internet phone call to someone at Hertz.

The car rental agency is a frequent example cited by Telnic, but Hertz doesn't appear to be affiliated yet with the company.

A .tel address would also allow someone to "publish and control, in real time, how they can be reached," according to Telnic.

Read the full story on eWEEK.com: A Web Address for a Phone Number? Do .Tel

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