Campaign to limit deliveries of white pages phone book gains momentum; bill with similar intent introduced in several states, to be introduced in California in January

Jan 13, 2010 — Forestweb

LOS ANGELES, January 13, 2010 (Forestweb) — Momentum is gaining for limiting deliveries of the phone book’s white pages, with a bill to be introduced in California in January and increased support for a campaign spearheaded by online directory provider White Pages Inc., The New York Times reported on Dec. 20.

A growing number of consumers and elected officials consider automatic delivery of the white pages as unnecessary and wasteful because residential phone numbers are available for free on the Internet.

White Pages Inc., which is the largest U.S. independent Internet directory provider, has gathered more than 20,000 signatures for its “Ban the Phone Book” campaign, which would create “opt-in” programs for people to request delivery of the white pages while those who do not sign up would not receive the directory.

The group declares on its Web site for the campaign that recycling the white pages cost taxpayers US$17 million a year and producing the directories require cutting down by as many as 5 million trees annually. However, phone book companies counter that the directories are made from recycled fiber and byproducts like sawdust.

Several states such as Alaska and New York have introduced legislation to limit distribution of the white pages directories by at least providing customers with a way to opt-out, reported the Times.

Later in January, a bill to prohibit telephone companies from delivering the directories unless customers ask to receive them is to be introduced in California by State Sen. Leland Yee.

U.S. trade associations for telephone book publishers recently created a Web site where users can notify local phone book publishers if they want to stop deliveries of the directories.

AT&T is testing its own white pages opt-in program, the Residential White Pages Consumer Choice Program, in several U.S. cities, including Austin, Texas, Cleveland, Ohio, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

When the company launched its call center in Ohio in July, it was besieged with calls from customers requesting a printed copy, reported the Times.

Customers without access to the Internet still need to look up phone numbers via the printed white pages, noted Mindy Spatt, a spokesperson for Utility Reform Network, a ratepayer advocacy group in San Francisco.

The primary source of this article is The New York Times, New York, New York, on Dec. 20, 2009.

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