It’s a state publication that’s chock full of consumer information and doesn’t hedge when it comes to making recommendations.

An example: “Touchstone is the clear choice” for long-distance telephone customers served by local – not Verizon – phone companies.

Another: Low-volume wireless phone customers “should compare prepaid wireless offers” to save money.

Both of those suggestions and plenty more can be found in Volume 15 of the Ratewatcher Telecom Guide. The state’s public advocate office publishes the guide each January and July, as a way of giving consumers information to make informed choices about telephone and related services.

The first guide was made available in 1997, the year the telephone industry was deregulated by Congress.

Wayne Jortner, who wrote the guide, says about 30,000 people in Maine receive it by mail and another 10,000 read it via the office’s Internet site.

It’s free to the public. People can request one by calling the advocate’s office.

Jortner says it’s worth it for people to take the time to read it.

“Anyone who hasn’t changed their telephone service in the past year is probably paying more than they need to,” he said.

Charts make it easy for consumers to compare both services and prices offered by scores of companies for local and long-distance plans, prepaid calling cards, wireless and Internet services.

Featured in the latest edition is a discussion of “voice over Internet protocol.” That’s Internet-based telephoning, both local and long distance. Included in the article are pros and cons of Internet phone service.

The guide also features an update on the public advocate’s appeal against the state Public Utilities Commission and Verizon. There’s still no decision in the case, a challenge to the PUC’s refusal to ensure that Verizon’s local rates are not excessive.

And there’s news, too.

There is a note that Vartec Telecom is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and that Ratewatcher hasn’t recommended most of that company’s services for some time.

Another note cautions dial-up Internet service users about clicking on pop-up ads. Some can cause modems to dial expensive foreign phone numbers; others can result in downloading programs that can hijack modems.