Verizon Dumps More White Pages

Thanks to the Internet and mobile devices, the age of the printed white pages is becoming somewhat obsolete.

New York-based Verizon on Monday revealed plans to cease the automatic production and delivery of printed residential white pages directories throughout its service area encompassing 12 states and Washington, D.C., by the end of the third quarter.

One of those states is Virginia, where Verizon is ending automatic delivery of printed residential white pages listings beginning with the release of the 2011-2012 Danville Verizon Superpages in late July.

But Verizon said customers in Virginia can still get a free residential white pages directory upon request. The telecommunications titan also will continue to deliver yellow pages directories containing business and government white pages, customer information pages and yellow pages ads.

Residential white pages usage has decreased considerably due to the Internet and mobile search,” noted Verizon, which cited Gallup research that estimated usage for residential white page directories dropped about 11 percent in 2008.

Verizon said the decision to nix the automatic production and delivery of printed residential white pages throughout its territory will keep approximately 17,000 tons of paper annually out of the countrys waste stream.”

Both Verizon and rival telco giant AT&T have been steadily eliminating automatic white pages delivery over the past couple of years.