Why are you so disparaging about a company that's trying to innovate and make money? You can use NAPTR/LOC/TXT records for any domain name you like, providing

Why are you so disparaging about a company that's trying to innovate and make money? You can use NAPTR/LOC/TXT records for any domain name you like, providing you have sufficient control over your DNS zone. However, many domain owners either don't have this ability, or lack sufficient knowledge to manage them. Many people, even businesses, don't even own domain names. .tel comes with tools and services that make it simple. In terms of privacy, you can encrypt specific records that only certain friends/groups can decrypt and read, so you can absolutely keep your phone number private. As a bonus, you could become liberated from it and can change it seamlessly, without having to tell any of your friends. I believe I heard that Michael Jackson used to change his number on a weekly basis - obviously an extreme case, but you get my drift.