Telephone directory

A phone book contains an alphabetical listing of all telephone network, usually divided into regions, together with their associated unique and phone numbers. It does not include unlisted numbers or telephone numbers where the customer has objected to an entry or no publication in the print media wants ( a publication on CD- ROM, the Internet or on which information is still possible ). Due to the addresses contained many phone books can also be used as an address book.

To protect against illegal use and resale of the address data, for example for marketing purposes, contain phonebooks so-called "control items ", ie addresses of fictional characters (similar to the fictitious articles in encyclopedias ). This unlawful user of the data can be tracked. For example, if a fictitious name also appears in the phone book from another vendor, it is evident that the other provider has copied the phone records.

The printed directories are published by the directory publishers in many cases once a year. In addition, the telephone numbers are available today on the Internet or on CD- ROM. There are numerous additional functions such as Internet addresses, map sections of residence or directions are provided in addition to the regularly updated contact often.

Completeness

Before the liberalization of the telecommunications market ( in Europe in the 1980s and 1990s ), the phone book was a nearly complete list of all households. In many places there was even a registration requirement.

Meanwhile, the market has changed so that more competitors share the former monopoly of the phone book publisher. But even in times of new communication technologies to mobile to IP telephony, the phone book publishers are still trying to keep by additional independent research the dataset complete and current of the. Traditional fixed-line connections can be assigned to the geographical end of the telephone line by the narrow definition of the address ( fixed address). Mobile phone numbers are coupled to the variable stays the terminal and can therefore be difficult in hergebrachte phone books that are based on a regional principle, incorporated. Here they are usually specify in addition to fixed lines for an owner. The same applies to IP telephony telephone numbers or even Internet services such as Skype, whose user names are not found in phone books. Moreover, such data can not easily detect, because users do not specify their address, yet most users want their user name under assignment to find a real name in a printed directory of residential address.

History and local peculiarities

The first telephone book ever published on February 21, 1878 in New Haven, Connecticut. There was a list with 50 entries.

Germany

1877 had found in a magazine invented by Philipp Reis telephone Postmaster General Heinrich von Stephan. On October 26, 1877 successful transfer experiments were carried out in Berlin under his Telegraph and General Director Director Budde, who had the establishment of a first telephone network in Germany result. On 14 July 1881, the first German telephone book was " the directory in the telephone device parties interested " published with the title in Berlin. By Stephan insisted to use the German name for the phone. This list contained 185 entries, sorted alphabetically and divided into four columns with number, name or company naming, the "name of the object or line of business " and the address of " home or business premises ." In the Berlin vernacular the first telephone book in Germany was also called "Book of fools " because the man who first German participants felt sorry on the street, who were taken in by this "swindle of America."

1889 was by Stephan announce the ten thousandth connection. Unusual telephone books in Germany in 1917 due to paper shortages due to the First World War and from 1942 during the Second World War.

Although it was initially intended solely as a directory that already in 1897 the first advertisement appeared in Cologne " telephone subscriber directory" and explained the history of the telephone directory as an information and advertising medium. Through his extradition as Official telephone directory to all telephone subscribers, it reached a mass distribution in German households in the 1970s. Since privatization in the 1980s, it is available as a " phone book ".

There are 125 regional editions with a total circulation of 32 million copies. The largest circulation there in Berlin. The entry is in contrast to earlier voluntary. The entire industry turnover is estimated at approximately € 1 billion.

Online editions of the phone books give users new services that facilitate the finding of entries. Statistics show that the access numbers are constantly rising to the online offer.

In accordance with § 78 Section 2 No. 2 of the Telecommunications Act ( the Act) in connection with § 104 and § 45m TKG, the usually once-yearly publication of a printed public subscriber directory as a universal service, and was thus defined as an essential basic services. Currently, the German Telekom AG provides universal services in the Federal Republic of Germany. The Telekom uses to her daughter Detention Medien GmbH in cooperation with the directory publishers and fulfilled this obligation with the annual publication of " The Phone Book".

Austria

In Austria, the first telephone directory was published on 15 June 1881. It was an Advertisement in humorous people sheet Kikeriki, which contained only a few entries of celebrities. The first official directory with all connections came out in late 1881 with the opening of Vienna's first telecommunication center. In the current Austrian phone book can be accessed online.

Switzerland

Appeared in 1880, the first telephone directory in the city of Zurich as a subscriber list of the then "Zurich telephone company " with just 98 entries. 1881 was followed by Basel and brought out its own list of participants. The phone book has developed rapidly in Switzerland. In 1900, there were 38,000 entries in 1959 there were a million and today approximately 4.3 million entries.

The Swiss phone book is also available online and for access from the mobile phone, such as a mobile app for smartphones and tablets.

Since 2013 there is a new, regional phonebook Local Guide edited by local.ch. This printed phone book lives with around 100 regional issues from all previous phone books in Switzerland. Included in the local guide are the well known Yellow and White Pages with telephone numbers and addresses of companies and private individuals in Switzerland. In addition, the local guide provides an editorial section with information about the region. The local guide is printed on 100% recycled paper.

World

The company yellow.com features a directory of telephone books from all over the world.

Sorting

Participants can be sorted by location. There is the so-called " Yellow Pages " in which professional participants are divided into business to many phone books.

Noteworthy is the treatment of umlauts in the sorting of the name. It is different to the one of encyclopedias and on the other between different German-speaking countries, see → Alphabetical sorting.

In most countries, private participants are sorted according to their surnames. In the absence of family names - - In Iceland, the participants are sorted by first name.

Trivia

• The cover of this edition of the Berlin telephone book of 2008 shows the town hall of Munich because of a mishap in place of the Red Town Hall.
• Tearing a phone book is a classic magic trick.