The Internet might have killed the white pages.
Verizon has petitioned the Virginia State Corporation Commission for permission to discontinue the annual mass printing and distribution of the white pages.
According to a legal notice run by Verizon Virginia Inc. and Verizon South Inc.:
“Verizon asserts that use of the residential white page directories by households has declined in favor of alternative methods of accessing listings such as Internet directories.”
The company also cites environmental benefits to not printing massive quantities of phone books. It says the printing and distributing consumes tons of paper and energy each year.
State regulation requires phone companies to provide white pages directories to any customer with a land line.
Verizon said it would still print the yellow pages and make residential phone listings available to customers upon request in printed form or online at no charge.
For those who might use 411 instead of the white pages, the phone companies are also pushing for change in their favor on that front.
The SCC said several local phone companies requested the elimination of a rule that allows two free 411 calls per month for land line customers.
The request, which was filed on phone companies’ behalf by the Virginia Telecommunications Industry Association, might also be evidence that the land line is becoming as obsolete as the phone book.
The VTIA argues that phone companies should be allowed to decide for themselves how many free 411 calls they should provide to customers. The two-call rule has been in place since 2008. Before that, customers were allowed three free 411 calls.
Read more about the proposals and how to comment on them here.
Unlike Yellow Pages which provide a benefit to advertisers, the white pages are little more than a burden on small business, who subsidizes the white with the ads they buy in yellow.
White pages made sense when most people had only a rotary-dial phone in the house and a notepad to write numbers. But with so many people now on mobile phones, with the capacity to store hundreds of numbers, they are rarely used in my house. Most save the numbers they need and will text a mutual friend if they need another residential number, or get the information online.
Cut white down to alphabetical business numbers and cut the cost to the advertiser. The need all the help they can get as they try to claw their way out of this recession!
Not all people use or have access to a computer. If Verizon wants to quit the production of the white pages, then make all the calls to information (411) a free call. This will satisfy most people, except Verizon, who will have to hire more people to answer the phone. The real reason for Verizon’s request is more profit for Verizon. The bottom line is always about money and profit not customer service.
I agree w/Verizon on this one. Both the white and yellow pages delivered to our house every year go straight into the recycling bin… a waste of paper and effort IMO. At a minimum, customers should be allowed to opt out of receiving them
It should be an opt-out option rather than a complete drop of the service (which we CONSUMERS pay for).
I hope the SCC approves the request. I’m not one to usually side with utilities, but the amount of wasted resources has got to be immense. Course, if they just eliminate the entire book, then that would save even more trees and energy, as well as save gas/oil as there would be no delivery and no plastic bags used to deliver the book in. There are plenty of other avenues for advertisers to use…many with a much better ROI too. Our WP/YP goes immediately into the recycle bin upon receipt. I don’t think my kids even know what the white page directory is.
I agree with the environmental benefits and the fact that Verizon is simply looking to boost profits by minimizing their printing and distribution costs, but I’m also cynical enough to think that NONE of the savings will be passed along to consumers.
Al has a point, they can’t discontinue the WP while at the same time lowering the number of free 411 calls. That’s a double whammy for people that still use one or both of the services.
I agree that you should have an opportunity to opt out if you don’t want the White Pages and order more if you want more than one copy. I have a computer and find it very difficult to get any phone number or address information without having to pay per request on line. Verizon still has a monopoly on the land lines and should make some concessions as a result.