AT&T calls for ending phone book white pages

By Don Shilling

The phone book dropped off on the doorstep may be smaller next year.

AT&T plans to eliminate the white pages from its directory but keep the yellow pages and business and government listings.

The changes are proposed for the Cleveland and Columbus areas this year. The Mahoning Valley directory, which is due out next month, will not change this year but is to be revised at a later date, said Caryn Candisky, a company spokesman.

Area residents still would be able to receive the residential directory that now is combined with the white pages, but they would have to call a toll-free number to get it.

AT&T figures most people can do without it.

Listings are now available online, including at AT&T’s site, www.realpageslive.com, Candisky said.

Plus, people also use other sources, such as lists provided by organizations, and many people have phone directories in their cell phones or other mobile devices, she said.

“Consumer behavior has changed,” she said.

One agency is trying to slow the company’s reaction to the change.

The Ohio Consumers’ Counsel, which represents consumers at the state level, on Friday asked the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to reconsider its Feb. 11 decision that allowed AT&T to change its directories in Ohio.

Consumers need an education program to learn about the change, said Ryan Lippe, a OCC spokesman.

The agency is suggesting that AT&T delay the change for at least two years and include information in phone bills that tell people what it is planning. In the meantime, people who want the smaller directory should be able to request it, the agency said.

The OCC estimates that 420,000 AT&T customers don’t have computers and an additional 82,000 don’t have Internet access.

Those people won’t be able to access online directories and they won’t be notified adequately that they can request a printed directory, Lippe said.

The company has 10 days to respond to the OCC’s filing. The PUCO then has 30 days to rule.

Candisky defended AT&T’s plan to notify customers that they can request a printed directory. A notice will be included in the smaller directory that will be delivered, she said. Plus, a flier will be placed in the bag that contains the directory.

The company prints 7.6 million directories a year in Ohio that either are white pages alone or white pages combined with yellow pages. In large cities, the two directories are separated.

shilling@vindy.com