Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!sun-barr!texsun!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: gonzalez@bbn.com Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Phonebook Distribution Message-ID: Date: 6 Sep 89 19:05:38 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Lines: 23 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 353, message 8 of 9 In a recent Telecom Digest, Mike Trout writes: > I've since wondered if this willingness to drop off unlimited phone books > may have been prompted by the fact that there is now a competitor phone > book (Western Information Systems or something like that). So far the > competing book seems to have been dropped off at residences but not I don't know about this. It seems to me that when advertising money gets tight, businesses are going to fall back to the book issued by the local telco. Distribution is bound to be more extensive, and customers who really want the yellow pages call the telco, not "Sorta Yellow Publishing". Come to think of it, I haven't received any unsolicited "alternate yellow pages" lately. In Boston, at least until recently, individual orders for phone books were filled through contractors. A guy in an unmarked white van drove around dropping sets in accordance with a worksheet. An order I placed last month, however, was delivered by the mailman. If the contractor arrangement is used for general distribution, I could easily imagine crews trying to unload as many books at a given place as they can. After all, five stops is easier than twenty in emptying a truck. -Jim.