Switzerland abolishes the telephone book – what about in Germany?

digitalization
After 142 years: Switzerland is discontinuing the printed telephone book – in Germany it is still a long way from that

The first appeared in Zurich in 1880, with just 98 entries. The last one will appear this year – at least in the printed version. Switzerland stops publishing the phone book after 142 years, as the manufacturer “Localsearch” announced. From 2023, private telephone numbers will only be published online.

Telephone book has lost its relevance

The main reason for the step is the digitization of society. “With the advent of the digital age and the increase in unsolicited telemarketing calls, fewer and fewer people want their phone number to be in a public directory,” the company said. This development is reinforced by a decline in landline connections and a change in the law in 1997. Since then, the publication of a telephone number in Switzerland has been voluntary.

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“This change makes it clear why the relevance of the ‘White Pages’ (that’s what telephone books are called in Switzerland; editor’s note) declined sharply in recent years”, says the CEO of “Localsearch”.

Other European countries have also abolished the paper phone book, the Netherlands around 2018.

In Germany everything stays the same

And in Germany? Everything stays the same for now. In Germany, printed telephone directories still have a (declining) circulation of around 60 million, according to the Association of German Information and Directory Media, according to the DPA news agency. They are therefore used in particular by the elderly and people in rural areas.

The first German telephone book appeared in Berlin in 1881, was later published by the Bundespost and then by Telekom. “Das Telefonbuch”, “Das Örtliche”, “Gelbe Seiten” and the corresponding online editions are now published by a consortium of around 100 publishers.

For many years, the annual publication of “a printed public directory of subscribers approved by the Federal Network Agency” in German was mandatory. After an amendment to the law last year, printed telephone directories no longer have to be published. A spokeswoman for the Federal Network Agency said the European code for electronic communications no longer provides for this star-Request with. “The German legislator has therefore refrained from making this mandatory.”

But the tomes are far from being a discontinued model. They still serve the telephone book publishers as advertising space printed millions of times to earn money – so there is currently no question of ending them.

Sources: “local search”, European Electronic Communications CodeFederal Network Agency, DPA news agency

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