The new phone book’s here!
The new phone book’s here!
I’m somebody now!
Millions of people look
at this book every day!
Navin R. Johnson, aka “The Jerk”
The phone book, that annual visitor to doorsteps everywhere and, for a certain Steve Martin movie character evidence of success, appears headed to oblivion. AT&T Georgia has asked the state Public Service Commission for permission to stop delivering residential “white pages” to its customers, calling it a “substantial hardship” for the company that is no longer necessary.
While the waiver request would apply statewide, AT&T said it initially would eliminate delivery only in its Atlanta book area — Atlanta, Chamblee, Decatur, Doraville, Dunwoody, East Point, Hapeville, Lithonia, Sandy Springs and Tucker.
Customers, the company emphasizes, could still obtain a hard copy of the white pages — at no cost — upon request.
A hundred years after the first phone book was published in 1878 in New Haven, Conn., few American households were without one. But the impending demise of a cultural icon didn’t excite much mourning on Monday.
“We stopped riding horses, too,” said Rick Watson, a professor in management information systems at the University of Georgia. “It’s just part of technological change that occurs and the move to electronic services, which are more convenient.”
If granted, the change would take place with the next scheduled book delivery in December and January. The company’s business white pages and its yellow pages directories would not be affected. AT&T continues to provide an online residential directory that mimics the look of the book at RealPagesLive.com.
AT&T took a first step toward eliminating automatic delivery of the white pages book last year when, in a trial in Atlanta, it instead delivered a CD-ROM of the listings, but no book.
The company said only about 1 percent of customers later asked for a paper copy, and fewer than 2 percent used the CD-ROM.
AT&T said it printed 876,224 copies of its December 2007 white pages, the last batch delivered automatically in Atlanta with no CD-ROM substitute.
That book contained 715 pages of names.
In its petition to the Georgia PSC, AT&T cited modern technology, changing consumer preferences and the environment among its reasons.
It noted the growing number of homes without land line service, the ability of wireless devices to store numbers, increased use of caller ID to capture numbers and use of the Internet to find numbers.
“For nearly a hundred years, the residential white pages directory was likely one of the most utilized books, and it served its purpose well. However, times have changed,” AT&T said in its filing.
The company said it has made similar efforts in several other states.
No action on the request is scheduled on the PSC’s calendar, but AT&T said it wants the decision expedited.
Will Phillips, associate state director for AARP Georgia, said the organization does not plan to intervene in the case and does not have “strong objections.”
But he expressed concerns on behalf of AARP members who he hopes can easily obtain a print copy should they want one.
“People 65 and older are more likely to have traditional land line service,” Phillips said. “Our membership will be impacted, especially the elderly and low income.” Such groups tend to have less access to the Internet.
In its waiver request, AT&T said it would notify customers of their options with an insert in the AT&T Real Yellow Pages directory and with notices in the book.
Others welcomed the demise of automatic delivery of the white pages for environmental and business reasons.
WhitePages.com, a company that provides users a database for contact information for Americans, has launched a campaign to ban the white pages book.
“It would be phenomenal for the environment,” said John Lusk, a company executive who concedes that doing away with the white pages directories also could help eliminate name confusion for his company.
Lusk said he takes his copy of the phone book delivered to his condominium, carries it a few steps over to the recycling bin and dumps it.
AT&T would not say how much money it would save by printing far fewer copies of the white pages which, unlike yellow pages directories, generates no advertising revenue.
It did say it used about 750 fewer tons of paper last year when it first stopped automatic book delivery in favor of the CD-ROM.
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