Banks and retailers, though they might find it useful to know who is defaulting on telephone bills, will not have access to this information. It is being sold only to telephone companies that want to reduce their losses from people who do not pay their phone bills. Equifax has offered such a data base for commercial use since 1995, collecting information on disconnected or unpaid commercial accounts. The business unit is representative of Equifax's mission to provide risk management services to a variety of industries. Mr. Chapman said. "We have less mass. We are totally focused now."