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AT&T seeks permission to drop personal listings

By AP  | February 07, 2012
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MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama's Public Service Commission will decide Tuesday whether to grant a request from the state's largest telephone landline provider to have permission to stop printing its residential White Pages directory.

In return for authorization, PSC President Lucy Baxley wants the company to stop charging a fee to residents who want their names, phone numbers and addresses to not be listed in the phone book.

"By not publishing a thick phone book, the company saves money and it is also environmentally friendly," Baxley wrote in a news release. "In return for this savings, the company should stop charging residential customers for unlisted numbers. It's only fair."

AT&T was authorized in 2005 to launch a pilot program in Mobile, where residents were not provided with the White Pages, but could request the directory in the form of a book or a CD. All of the directory information is also available online.

Both sides agree that the program was successful.

"Consumers have embraced the choice of receiving white pages or not," Hood Harris, director public affairs for AT&T, wrote in an email. "To now put restrictions on what consumers want and demand just doesn't make sense."

Harris said AT&T wouldn't disclose how much the pilot program saved it or what statewide savings projections were for competitive reasons.

Baxley concedes that her commission may not have the authority to demand AT&T drop the fee. Because the legislature deregulated most of AT&T's retail service in 2005, the commission's jurisdiction could be limited.

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