Companies yank cord on residential phone books

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   Stacie Lposted 13 years ago

   Companies yank cord on residential phone books
   By MICHAEL FELBERBAUM, AP Business Writer Michael Felberbaum, Ap Business Writer  Thu Nov 11, 2:06 pm ET
   
   RICHMOND, Va. What's black and white and read all over? Not the white pages, which is why regulators have begun granting telecommunications companies the go-ahead to stop mass-printing residential phone books, a musty fixture of Americans' kitchen counters, refrigerator tops and junk drawers.
   
   http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101111/ap_ … hite_pages
   
   ok so this is a literary piece but it is and was a staple in all American homes for many years....i no longer use it and actually throw them away...
   How about you?

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      Mcmillen Writesposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I hate phone books. Seems every 6 months I have two on my doorstep.
      
      I am tired of getting them... I use google

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   Aficionadaposted 13 years ago

   I use MSN White pages for reverse phone number lookups.  (That's the only use I have for MSN, by the way.  Oops - I do occasionally look at their Lifestyle section.)
   
   I don't like having more phone books than I can manage.  But I do use them - all the time, in fact. 
   
   I use the white pages to get more information about my children's friends and their families.  I use the yellow pages all the time to get more information on businesses I need to find.  Most often, I use the maps of the city in the front of the phone book. 
   
   I can find the phone number for reporting power outages in the phone book - not so easy to do online when the power is out.
   
   I have instant access to the printed phone book when others are using the computer.  And, if I need information immediately - before the computer has finished booting up - I can find it quickly and easily in the printed book.
   
   Each "brand" of phone book has some features that I like and some that I dislike.  In one of ours, the zip code is printed along with the street address - I like that.
   
   I would like to have a printed copy of cell phone numbers, but I haven't seen anything like that yet.
   
   Maybe they should have people pre-order the books, then they wouldn't print them indiscriminately and waste paper.

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3. 68

   Jo Deslaurierposted 13 years ago

   I definitely agree with Aficionada that people should be able to preorder the phone books. Its a win-win situation where the people who want and need them can have 'em and the majority of us won't have to throw thousands of pages away every year.

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   ediggityposted 13 years ago

   It's about time.  I'm tired of picking them up off the porch, and throwing them into my recycle bin.

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