Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!wuarchive!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: WMartin@wsmr-simtel20.army.mil (William G. Martin) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Phonebook Distribution Message-ID: Date: 30 Aug 89 20:02:46 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Lines: 62 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 335, message 3 of 6 The recent mention (in the charging-for-DA-calls discussion) of phone books in offices, or the lack thereof, leads me to post a query about the issuing of telephone books. I have written Southwestern Bell about this (twice -- they didn't reply until I sent a followup), but the answer I received was not very specific and didn't tell me just what I was trying to find out. This was originally prompted by the fact that we here, in a government office, never seem to get enough telephone books when the new ones are issued. Pallet-loads of phone books come into the building, but, when the distribution is finally completed, every office I've worked in seems to end up with fewer copies than they really need, meaning that people who have to use a phone book must get up from their desk and retrieve one from some central point, or make do with last year's. I always supposed that the reason we got too few copies was that the telco was charging for them, and the powers-that-be were being frugal (or stingy, depending on your point of view). However, since I didn't pay for my telephone books (seperately and distinctly, that is! :-) as a residential customer, I didn't know that for sure -- it was a guess. Now, even after writing the telco, I still don't know for sure. :-) For all I have been able to determine, it might be that we could have just asked for more books and gotten them at no extra cost, and the people responsible just never accurately determined how many books we really needed. They skimmed off all they wanted, and, by the time the distribution got down to us working stiffs, there wern't enough left to go around. I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case... Anyway, this leads to several questions; I'm also curious as to how this whole situation was before divestiture, and how it changed -- I figure if I care enough to find out about exactly how it is now, I'd also like to know the historical background! :-) Is a residential telephone customer entitled to one set of books per household, one set per instrument, or one set per line into that residence? Is a business customer entitled to one set per line, one per instrument, to as many as they ask for without limit, or to what they ask for up to some cutoff based on their usage? Or are they charged for each set of books separately? How does the business customer situation change when they have their own equipment versus leasing it? Since the BOC doesn't provide the equipment any longer, if the book allocation is based on number of instruments, how do they know what that is? In this distribution scheme, are Yellow Pages treated differently from White Pages? (I recall that there was some negotiation and back-and-forthing about Yellow Page revenue in the divestiture struggle, so that's why I ask that.) Locally, in St. Louis city (SW Bell territory), we just have a single White Pages and a single Yellow Pages book. (Though there was another sort of competing Yellow Pages one year a year or so back; haven't seen that again.) But I know some metropolitan areas have multi-volume sets, and books tailored differently for residential and business use. How is a "set" of books defined there? If you have some sort of higher-cost, wider-area calling area, is your "set" of books different from somebody with minimal service? Or does everyone get the same books regardless? (I'm sure this will vary with the individual BOC, so if you post a response, identify the BOC involved.) Regards, Will Martin