Are telecom companies coming back?
Well, the telecom-service companies will experience revenue growth as a result of greater wireless and Internet usage, but it may be a while before the earnings come back, considering their tremendous excess capacity and huge amounts of debt. Given the regulatory issues on the table, there’s a lot of risk [over] which companies are going to benefit the most, let alone how long it will take. For the telecom-hardware companies, it’s more a matter of time, but it may be a long time before most of the industry sees a meaningful pickup. Depending on the success of the new wireless technologies, there might be opportunities for those hardware companies focused on that area. Q: Chuck, are companies providing more information when it comes to earnings guidance without the use of so-called pro forma techniques? A: Well, the use of bad pro forma is declining and will decline further as a result of the Security & Exchange Commissions’s implementation of regulation G on Mar. 28, which prevents com
