France calls time on phone book

THICK telephone directories delivered to every front door in France are to become a thing of the past, as part of a wide-ranging law on modernising the country's economy.

Hidden away in the much-publicised Loi Macron is a clause, which Le Figaro says almost went unnoticed, removing the obligation to print and send out the Pages Blanches directory of personal telephone numbers.

The book's publisher, Solocal Group, says it will now only issue a phone book in a handful of departments where doing so is still profitable.

The Loi Macron also scraps Orange's obligation to maintain at least one telephone box in each commune under its "universal service" agreement. The number of phone boxes has already fallen from 300,000 to 40,000 in 25 years.