I really don't understand why everytime a gTld is out, everyone rush on 3 letter and think it worth $$$ when all gone, that's true for dot com but I don't see any end users going to buy these. But 4 letter are way better when itcan be pronounced, have a meaning. Also a lot of company have 4 letter in their name. I did reg some LLL.tel as "hyped by domainers" but don't think it worth something like a 4 letter, only LLL.tel that are words are valuable like flu, car, men...)
Also famous LLL.tel like cnn, hbo, ibm...are trademarks so what a waiste money.
*
I agree that domainers (and others) need to stay away from well-known LLL TMs. But at some point, almost every LLL is a TM somewhere. I think it depends how one uses them. If I reg a relatively unknown LLL TM and use it for my initials (or for a purpose than the TM), then I'm going to be okay. No confusion there.
If .tel becomes widely adopted, even the non-premium LLL's will eventually sell out (all 17,576) because, somewhere, each LLL represents someone's initials. And 17,576 is a minute drop in the bucket in the global marketplace. And .tel will be an end user's domain, not a domainer's parking lot.
End users will NOT care if a LLL term is 100,000 exact Google or 35. Most will just care that (1) it's short, (2) personal to them, and (3) memorable to the people important to them. Most end users (unless they are businesses), will not care about their traffic stats. They will just want an easy .tel to give out to friends and family (who are already familiar with their initials).
Obviously, a reseller will not likely be able to charge a premium price for a non-premium and non-pronounceable LLL's, but there will be some profit in such LLL's.
I also agree that there will be much value in LLLL dictionary words (even ones that don't quite fit the TLD), and, frankly, they are going fast.
Also, keep an eye on short domains with the word "go" in them. I picked up a few, but they, too, are going fast. Next to super premium words,
short complete sentences will be most memorable. If not sure, look at what's gone in other TLDs.
*