New phone book doesn't reflect growth in cell phone use

If the population of a city can be determined by the size of the phone book, then Prince George surely must be shrinking.

But that's not really the case, simply because not every number is listed.

The new Telus phone directory that's arriving on city doorsteps contains 61 fewer yellow pages listings (from 348 in 2011 to 288 this year) and 13 fewer white pages (from 137 to 124). The number of red-bordered yellow pages that carry local restaurant listings remained at 37 pages, the same as in 2011.

The Prince George white pages listings, not including Vanderhoof, Mackenzie and the surrounding rural areas and small towns, take up 72 pages of the new directory, beginning with A-Mac Truss and ending with Donna Mae Zwozdesky.

While Telus is required by federal law to produce phone listings, it doesn't gather the listings for the book that bears its name.

"I know it looks like it because our logo is on it, but we don't actually publish that book," said Telus spokesman Shawn Hall. "We used to publish the book years ago, but when phone service became competitive we stopped doing that because it publishes information from all phone companies."

Hall said directories publish mostly land line phone numbers rather than cell phone numbers. Telus asked its wireless customers several years ago if they wanted their cell phone numbers listed in the directories and Hall said they overwhelmingly said no.

"People see their cell phone number as private, something they don't want to be disturbed on except by people they know," said Hall.

"Since then, with the advent of smart phones and cell phones being used to purchase things it's become important that people keep their cell phone numbers private and we advise people to treat their cell phone numbers like they would a credit card. Don't post it on an online forum or in a directory because it could be used for someone to try to perpetrate some kind of scam or fraud."

But hardwired phone lines in houses and other buildings are diminishing in popularity due to the explosive growth in cell phone use over the past decade.

"Certainly some people are choosing to move to wireless only, around 10 or 15 per cent of households in B.C.," said Hall. "You see it highest where you have universities because people make a choice when they leave home to have a cell phone and that works best for them.

"But then when they want a family they want a land line because with land lines you can get everybody on the phone with grandma and grandpa at the same time."

He said the other advantage to a land line is it physically pinpoints a certain location in the event of a 911 emergency call.

The directory being delivered this month is put together and published by the Yellow Pages Group, which has its head office in Montreal.

The new Telus directory is one of at least two now regularly produced that serve the city. Info Pages produces an annual phone book using phone numbers gathered locally through an office on Quebec Street. Its white and yellow pages listing are online at

www.infopages.ca.

Shaw Communications and Bell Canada also install land lines, and those numbers are listed in the directories.

"All of the Shaw phone numbers are published in the phone book unless, of course, that customer has requested an unlisted number," said Katherine Emberley, vice president, communications and public relations at Shaw Communications.