PORTLAND, Maine — FairPoint Communications recently dropped residential listings from its phone book White Pages in New Hampshire and Maine, following in the steps of other telecommunications providers by making those listings available by request only for certain customers.
FairPoint spokeswoman Angelynne Beaudry said the company has not eliminated the residential White Pages, but placed them online as allowed by a Maine law passed in 2012.
“For FairPoint, customers are able to still access the White Pages either through a requested copy or online,” Beaudry wrote in an email. “The White Pages aren’t going away, they are going green.”
The state law allowed a telephone company to choose not to print hard-copy directories, but requires that it offer hard copies to customers who receive “provider of last resort” telephone service from FairPoint.
According to the Library of Congress, the first phone directories in Maine were distributed in 1913 in Augusta, Bangor and Portland.
Beaudry said the vendor that prints its phone books had requested the change as more people switch to using cellphones primarily. Cellphone numbers, she noted, were not available in the directories.
That vendor, Dex Media, also manages directory listings for Verizon and AT&T, both of which have sought similar curtailment of directory printing in various states.
The Union Leader reported early Thursday that FairPoint recently began distributing new, slimmer phone books, which include White Page listings for businesses.
FairPoint has moved its directory to a site managed by Dex Media for most communities in Maine. That site includes both Yellow Page and White Page searches. The company began notifying customers of the change earlier this year and set up its own page to tell customers about the change.
That page directs customers to call Dex Media at 877-243-8339 if they would like to request a phone book with full residential White Page listings.