Why is BT cancelling its online digital phone book directory?

BT is saying goodbye to its digital directory this week.

After April 30, The Phone Book Online, which allows users to look up a person or business’s phone number, will no longer be available. They will now have to call 118 500, which costs £1.55 per minute, plus a 77p call charge if they do not have internet access or cannot find the number they want online.

This is the second time BT has cancelled a service this year. In March, it stopped delivering its printed phone book to people’s homes. BT said it printed 18 million copies of the phone book each year, but people now use internet search engines to find the same information.

So why is BT shutting down its directory services?

Why did BT stop its phone books and digital directory service?

According to BT, fewer people are searching for phone numbers on thephonebook.bt.com.

Faisal Mahomed, director of BT’s UK portfolio companies, said last May: “Since 1880, the phone book has been synonymous with BT. For many years it was an essential resource and the only way to find contact information for a person or business.

“But times have changed and today it is easy to find this information with a click of a mouse or a tap of a smartphone. With the explosion of data and choice of devices over the last decade, as well as the increasing digitization of services, the printed phone book is just a memory for many.”

In fact, we still print 18 million phone books every year. However, given the declining demand and the high environmental impact of printing and distributing these hard copies, we have decided that the last books will go out of print in March 2024.”

BT is not the only company saying goodbye to paper. In 2019 we saw the end of the Yellow Pages and a year later Argos announced it would stop printing its catalogue.

It is likely that more companies will follow this example in the future.