I'm not sure if any of the major telecom companies can ever fully recoup the cost of building the networks. It's more a game of hiding and restructuring debt. That's OK, because the people win- the infrastructure is built. But I think that telecom is largely like other "big infrastructure" projects. At the end of the day, no matter what they charge, they don't really make money. It's all about indirect earnings- a CEO gets paid this, a COO paid that, governments get their tariffs, contractors get some, vendors get some, resellers get some. But at the end of the day, the cost of building a reliable, fast network, especially when competing in the data market which has relatively low barriers to entry (face it, anyone with a a Wi-Fi access point, some slick caching software, and an internet connection can, in a way, compete). No, I think that telecoms are all about cash FLOW.
Thoughts?