Here in the UK, the big telco is British Telecommunications Ltd., otherwise known as BT. Every few years, it produces a physical telephone directory (“White Pages” for our North American cousins). Each house gets a free copy for the local area.

When the directory arrives on my doorstep it goes straight in the (recycling) bin.

It’s not because paper directories are an anachronism in the Internet era, it’s because despite living in a village less than 8 miles from the capital city of Northern Ireland, Belfast, BT thinks I would be better served by being in the South Eastern area. It’s a strange decision because my postal address says Belfast and the nearest South Eastern area town is actually further away by about a mile. Regardless, BT thinks a Belfast directory and listing would be no use to me or those looking for my number.

The last time I complained about this I was given utter twaddle about “aligning boundaries”. I know that it’s nonsense because I also know which council, constituency and healthcare authority I fall under and there’s no alignment of boundaries there as far as I can see.

However, I struggle to find a reason for this stupidity. Is it simply to keep the subscriber numbers up in a given area so that they can sell more advertising? I don’t know and I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. In the morning, I’m going to opt-out of receiving the telephone directory and I’m already ex-directory. Who needs a phone book in the Internet era when directory enquiries are but a mouse click away?