Ugh. I’ve spent hours searching the FCC site and I cannot find what I need. So I’ve come begging for help…
I work in the phone directory distribution industry for an independent (i.e., non telephone company owned) distributor. For obvious reasons, I’ve become interested in phone books in general and am looking for any general history’s of them, but to no avail: this is obviously a subject so boring that not a single web page has been devoted to it, nor does Amazon.com list a single book that narrates the history of the industry.
So I’m reduced* to prowling the usenet and message boards ( ) to ask the simple question: why are phone books published?
I do know enough about the industry to know you have two different publishers:
Independents, who publish phone directories solely for the purpose of selling ads and have no relationship with the Telcos. Your bigger independents include White Directory, Yellow Book USA (they also bought out the McLeod USA people), and TransWestern Publishing (probably the worst phone book published by a major publisher). I’m not worried about these companies, as their motive is obvious.
Telco’s, who publish phone books because some 1934/1996 Telecommunications act regulation forces them to. I assume this because, well, they all do. Perhaps I’m wrong in my assumption, but damn: most everybody has a phone company phone book published for their area, regardless of how remote they are.
The above is the information that I’m looking for. I’m trying to find which section of the 1934/1996 telecommunication acts is responsible for making the Telco’s provide their Local Exchange Customers with printed phone directories.
Thank you in advance.
*My opinion. I’m perfectly aware that quality info can come from postings, but verifiability and dependability can be a bitch.
Actually, the act itself doesn’t really help. This thing has 46,000+ words according to Word, and finding all references to the words “directories”, “books”, or “publish” doesn’t help. Maybe it’s too early to close the thread.
There was a famous case, mostly concerning copyright matters, called Feist Publishing versus Rural Telephone Service(Kansas.)
It went the Supreme Court as I recall. I’m sure you can find the decision on the web somewhere. Anyway, I remember about three paragraphs from the end, a remark about Rural was required to print the directory because of the Kansas Corporation law for phone companies. I could be off on the minor points, this is all from memory.
Another question comes to mind-- How much does an average size phone book (3 inches thick?) cost to print? I’m sure it adds a lot to the cost of phone service, and we’d obviously be better off if delivery was optional. Especially in the age of the internet. I don’t think I’ve used a phone book to find a number in the past two years.
According to Dex Media East, which just completed the purchase of several of Qwest’s directory businesses, this is correct. State PUCs require LECs to publish white pages.
Yellow Pages directory are published because they’re more profitable than Microsoft. Man, what a business!
When it was all AT&T, I doubt if they had to be made to print a phone book. As stated the Yellow Pages were money makers and think of all the operators they would have needed to give out numbers or connect each call (which is how it all started).
[sup]There once was a guy who said “Hey, why don’t we print a book with numbers and stop hiring operators!”[/sup]
I seem to be missing a few posts. Were they deleted?
The OP is stamped at :25. Then, at :36, JohnT apologized for the thread without telling us what answer he found. In JohnT’s third post, stamped at :45, he talks about “the act”, and then other posters sound like they know what JohnT is talking about.
I dunno. It sounds like a simple answer. They printed books so that people would be able to find phone numbers and use the phone service more.
I did lose a couple of posts, Keeve, and that might be the problem (one with lots of quotes and sh… uh, stuff.)
Anyway, the gist of the first one was this: like aahala noted, I found a copy of the Feist decision, and the very second sentence of the Courts verdict (as rendered by Justice O’Conner) states that the requirement to print phone directories is a state requirement. Further research revealed this is generally dependent upon the state conferring monopoly status to a Local Exchange Carrier (i.e., if you want a monopoly you have to print these things).
Calming down, I returned to the computer to promptly lose a second post in response to aahala’s, in which I noted that the Feist decision was incorporated into the 1996 Telecommunications Act (the “act” referred to earlier) in section 222(e). Sorry for the confusion.
In conclusion, the question is answered: phone directories get printed because the states require it as a condition upon conferring monopoly Local Exchange service.
) to ask the simple question: why are phone books published?
[sup]There once was a guy who said “Hey, why don’t we print a book with numbers and stop hiring operators!”[/sup]
