Southwestern Bel Communications Phone book ripoff Internet

Someone complained about the cost of the SW BEll Phone Book being so high, stating it probably only cost them 50 cents or so to publish.

Here's something to consider: As with anything else, you are not paying for the cost of the material, but the work, time and skill or knowledge to publish or manufacture it. A paperback book costs $10 or $20, but the paper isn't worth that.

Also, SW Bell is REQUIRED to publish phone numbers for customers for phone service in their area who are not SW Bell Telephone Customers. Since opening up the local long distance market, the FCC requires SW Bell to include all phone numbers in the area for publishing. So it costs SW Bell to do this for their noncustomers. The costs of the book are their costs which also include an offset for this extra expense and is part of the charge that is passed along to the customer. They also pay someone to mail these out, and that person has benefit coverage, i.e. insurance, vacation, etc. so there is a lot more involved than the mere cost of the paper. Might make someone feel not so put upon to pay these charges. SW Bell is NOT making money off this, I assure you.

I agree it sounds quite expensive, but realize there is no monopoly on the phone book business.

There are a number of other books produced in the area...if I'm not mistaken, McLeod and others print them. I believe it's just difficult for SWBell to send out individual books from one area to another. You might want to give the other ones a call.

Another idea, seriously: you may want to try recycling centers in the area - there are always recycling drives for white/yellow pages. I got a book for the Dallas-Ft Worth area that way. So it's a few months out of date -- the price is right.