‘End of an era’ as BT ends free, popular service within weeks after 140 years
BT is ending its core services after more than 140 years due to declining user numbers.
The broadband and phone provider will no longer distribute free copies of its iconic phone book from April.
First shared with households in 1880, the directory is a familiar sight on your doorstep and a central point to find contact information about a person or business.
But the final run will take place next month, as BT sets its sights on net zero production by 2030 and households increasingly turn online to find the same information.
Still, the latest news could be a blow to older or more vulnerable households without internet access.
It comes after BT pulled the plug on traditional home phones for millions of customers last November.
A spokesman said 18 million copies of the phone book are printed annually.
But a decline in the number of paper advertisements and the number of households using the directory had led to the decision to discontinue it.
They added: “For those who still require a printed telephone directory, this will be available on request at a subsidized price for the first year.
“We will also host a PDF version available for download.”
The subsidized copy costs £10 plus postage for the first year, then at cost price thereafter.
Customers can find the PDF version on BT’s website, but not yet. It is not clear exactly when this will be available.
Households have shared their devastation after discovering that this staple product will be phased out for good after more than a century.
One, who shared a photo of their latest copy on Facebook, said: “Came in the post today.
“It’s funny to think that this is the last one ever, for the young people it’s like closing Google.
“Sad to think that we will no longer experience that excitement when the new telephone book drops through the letterbox.”
A second said: “Anyone ever get their last phone book from BT? End of an era.”
A third commented: “We received our last phone book this week. What does everyone think about this? A sign of the times I guess.”
A fourth added: “End of an era, remember how great they once were!”
And even Anthony Brown, MP for South Cambridgeshire, has weighed in, recently posting on his Facebook page: “A changing of the guard from an institution that started in 1880, with just 248 entries (and, strangely, no telephone numbers!) and has yielded to the combined pressure of, among other things, the Internet age and the mobile phone.
“Will anyone miss the phone book?”
BT first launched its paper telephone directory in 1880 and has printed it almost continuously since, with the exception of a seven-year period between 1913 and 1920.
The first national telephone book was printed in 1896 and contained 1,350 pages and 81,000 entries.
By 1900, the directory began to contain duplicate columns due to the sheer number of entries in it.
But the company said last May that the increased environmental impact of printing and distribution was one of the reasons it would scrap the paper version.
It added that the measure will save around 6,000 tonnes of paper annually, equivalent to 72,000 trees.
It comes after fellow guide titan Yellow Pages released its final paper edition in early 2019, after launching 51 years earlier.
The first edition of the household staple was published in 1966 in Brighton, the same city where it was last delivered to your door.
In 2020, Argos announced that it would stop printing its famous catalog after almost five decades.
In other news, we reveal the exact dates when 11 major mobile and broadband companies will increase bills by up to £50 for millions.
In addition, millions of BT customers could receive up to £500 in compensation thanks to a major class action lawsuit that launched last month.
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