British firm Telnic has announced that its .tel top level domain (TLD) name directory will go live in December.

The company's .tel domains will store constantly updated contact information, web pages and keywords on a single page that does not need building by the user.

Users can protect their data using 128-bit encryption and mask their details to casual users while allowing friends and family full access.

"Some have said this is a spammer's dream but they do not understand the system," Justin Hayward, communications director for Telnic, told vnunet.com.

"All the details are completely private and they are not stored anywhere else. There are also no data ownership terms and conditions so if the company you use gets bought the new owners do not get access to your information."

Hayward jokingly referred to telnic as the "longest start-up in history". The company began work on the project in 2000 and took its proposals for a TLD to ICANN in 2002.

It then did a full proof of concept and reapplied in 2004 and got approval two years later. Now the initial phase will go live in December with a full roll out in February.