Future White Pages Delivery By Request Only

AT&T was recently granted permission by Missouri’s Public Service Commission to cease automatic delivery of the residential white pages:

AT&T customers in the St. Louis and Kansas City areas still will receive paper copies of the yellow business pages, which also will include business white pages and government listings. But to get a residential phone book, customers will need to call a toll-free number and ask for one. The directories will be mailed for free.

AT&T said the move is intended to save money and paper as more people look up phone numbers on the Internet and rely solely on cell phones not listed in directories.

AT&T is Missouri’s largest local phone service provider with about 1 million access lines. It had printed 543,000 residential phone books for the Kansas City and St. Louis areas, said company spokesman Kerry Hibbs.

The PSC decision comes just in time for AT&T to cut back on its paper order for residential phone books that were due out in December for Kansas City and in January for St. Louis, Hibbs said.

Fewer than 2 percent of customers asked for the paper phone books during similar pilot projects last year in Atlanta and Austin, Texas, he said. (source: AP via Business Week)

Business white pages will be a part of future yellow pages.  AT&T makes money selling ads in the Yellow Pages but the white pages were just a big loss of cash and a huge waste of paper. Those not on the internet are likely the only ones still interested in having a white pages.

Now if we can only cease delivery of the  yellow pages.

– Steve Patterson