Companies yank cord on residential phone books

[marieelissa]

What's black and white and read all over? Not the white pages, which is why regulators have begun granting telecommunications companies the go-ahead to stop mass-printing residential phone books, a musty fixture of Americans' kitchen counters, refrigerator tops and junk drawers.

In the past month alone, New York, Florida and Pennsylvania approved Verizon Communications Inc.'s request to quit distributing residential white pages. Residents in Virginia have until Nov. 19 to provide comments on a similar request pending with state regulators.

Telephone companies argue that most consumers now check the Internet rather than flip through pages when they want to reach out and touch someone.

I still use a phone book but if they do this then I guess I will have to use the internet for this purpose. I only use it for the Yellow Pages though.

Unlike the residential white pages, the business directories printed on yellow pages are doing fine, at least according to the Yellow Pages Association. The industry trade group claims more half the people in the U.S. still let their fingers do the walking every month, and that 550 million residential and business directories are still printed every year.

Verizon plans to continue to deliver directories that contain business and governmental listings along with the consumer guide information provided in white pages directories, but the residential listings would only be available by request.

Do you still use a phone book?

[jordandog]

This could NOT have been put here at a better time, actually kind of a 'that's too strange' moment. I just got home from seeing a patient (yes, I still do housecalls for elderly/disabled), walked up onto my front porch, and what do I see - yet another orange bag with a phone book in it. I kid you not, this is the 6th one I have received since the end of September! Now, I do still use a phone book quite a lot, but do I need one in every room of the house? Maybe they think my 3 dogs are in need of one, the large print might come in handy for them.

The thing is, I have called and asked NOT to be given this many about 5 times in the last couple years, but evidently none of the 3 companies that print them are getting it. Oh well, I will do my usual and take them down to the Senior Center by my hospital and let anyone who needs it take it. This is just a ridiculous amount of wasted paper, but I also realize people get paid to distribute them on a route, so I guess I am adding to a person's income. It is beyond 'overkill' though and that irritates me. Time to call again I guess...

[shernajwine]

I rarely use the phone book. I use the internet or call free 411. If those two things fail, I use the phone book. However, the only yellow pages I get anymore are the "Express" pages and its a relatively thin book compared to the normal yellow pages and it NEVER has the information I need. My phone books usually end up in recycling.