A new style BT phone book is being trialled in Cornwall.

The book features a local image on the front cover and more locally-focused content, and 50,000 copies have been delivered around the county.

With more than 62,000 people listed within its pages, the book also has more than 1,000 business listings too. A diverse range of companies and tradesmen paid to advertise including automotive, finance, insurance, legal, leisure, retail and health.

But do people even still use the phone book?

While an online version of the phone book was launched in 2005 – research shows that tens of thousands of households still make use of the print copy of the phone book, says BT.

Cornwall was picked for the trial of the new-style book, because of its georgraphy and the importance placed on ‘local connections’ in the county. BT says that the trial book has received positive feedback so far, and that it will aim to launch the new phone book across the UK in 2022.

The first British telephone directory was published on 15 January 1880 by The Telephone Company, and the first phone book covering the whole of Britain was published in 1896, containing 81,000 phone numbers and 1,350 pages.

By 1914, the phone book was the largest single printing contract in the UK, with a million and a half phone books being printed each year

In 2005, an online version of the phone book was launched

In 2010, the phone book moved to 100 per cent recycled paper and the compact BT Phone Book was introduced to fit through letter boxes and save 2,000 tonnes of paper each year.