Companies Hanging Up on Paper White Pages in States

Verizon’s plan is to seek regulatory approval in all 12 states where it operates land line telephone service, a spokesman said. The company notified the Maryland Public Service Commission in September. The commission is accepting comments on the proposal and will discuss the issue at its meeting Dec. 8. The Virginia State Corporation Commission is accepting public comment in a similar docket through Friday. Verizon will make a similar request of the D.C. Public Service Commission very soon, the spokesman said. Several states have approved Verizon’s petition, including New York, Florida and Pennsylvania.

The effort to move to on-request rather than automatic delivery of the residential white pages listings will save an estimated 1,670 tons of paper from Virginia’s waste system and 2,000 tons from Maryland’s, the Verizon spokesman said. Customers increasingly are turning to other sources for residential white pages listings, including online directories, websites and directory assistance services, he said, citing a recent study that found residential white pages directory dependence declined from 25 percent in 2005 to 11 percent in 2008. People will continue to get print directories including consumer guide pages, business and government listings, as well as the Yellow Pages, he said. AT&T recently added Houston to the growing list of cities where customers will receive a printed phone book only if they ask for one. The company will continue to provide directory assistance online or by phone.

Consumers believe paper white pages phone books are irrelevant because they create unnecessary environmental waste, very few people depend on them and some information is often wrong, among other reasons, said Ban the Phone Book in a report released Wednesday. Ban the Phone Book’s website says it is sponsored by online directory site WhitePages.com and said the initiative promotes opt-in legislation for the delivery of White Pages phone books. The paper books contain information for landline telephone numbers only, the group said. More than one in five consumers have cut the cord in favor of VoIP or wireless only, it said. Better contact information is online for free, the group said. The group cited a Gallup poll that found only 11 percent of households relied on the printed white pages phone book in 2008.

But consumer groups like Citizens Action Coalition said they would fight to keep the white pages from being discontinued completely because not everyone has access to Internet. In the states that will move to on-request delivery system, residents can always call and request copies, the Verizon spokesman said. The company will reach out to local residents and make sure they are informed, he said.

Not every directory publisher likes the idea. Yellow pages publishers filed a lawsuit this week against the city of Seattle challenging a new phone book ordinance that prohibits delivering a yellow pages book to people who opt out. The case, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, argued that the ordinance restricts publishers’ fundamental right to free speech. State and municipal laws against yellow pages are bad for small businesses and consumers, Neg Norton, president of the Yellow Pages Association said. “If every city launched a patchwork of opt-out websites, it would be difficult for publishers to honor delivery requests and would place additional burden on stretched city resources to build and maintain these sites,” said Larry Angove, president of The Association of Directory Publishers. Directory publishers have made significant investments in sustainable production practices since launching industrywide environmental guidelines in 2007, they claimed. Under the ordinance, publishers are required to pay for the costs of operating the registry. The ordinance also requires yellow page publishers to begin paying for recycling of unwanted and outdated yellow pages directories beginning next year. The law also sets penalties for publishers who continue to deliver directories when asked not to.