SYRACUSE -- If you receive the Verizon phone book on your doorstep each year, it may soon look a lot thinner.
The state's Public Service Commission has granted Verizon's request for permission to give residential white page directories to customers only on request.
Verizon says about 5,000 tons of paper will be saved each year because of the decision. The company will continue to distribute directories with government and business white and yellow pages through its publisher, SuperMedia. Those books will have a toll-free number customers can use to request a free printed or CD-ROM residential directory. That number is 1-800-888-8448.
Online listings will also be available free of charge.
The chairman of the Public Service Commission, Garry Brown, said customers have many options today for finding phone numbers, and many don't want a phone book.
Verizon is the largest telephone company in New York with more than five million phone lines.
We talked to Central New Yorkers today to see if they’ll miss their white pages. Some said they don’t even use the phone book.
“I don’t know anyone who uses it actually,” says 18-year-old Samantha Babcock. “Not even my parents, maybe my grandparents.”
Jody Kensey says she still uses her phone book regularly and was surprised by Verizon’s decision.
“I’m not too happy about that,” she says. “I don’t know how I’d look up somebody’s name I needed to find.”
Verizon spokesperson John Bonomo says people can expect to see the change in 2011. Verizon says a 2008 Gallup study shows only 11% of people still use the residential white pages.
Do you still use the white pages in your phone book? Will you miss the white pages when they don't arrive anymore? Post your comments here and let your voice be heard.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
