Telecom Companies

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Last Updated: Thursday, 12 June 2025 02:15

Published: Wednesday, 23 April 2025 14:08

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Telecom Companies:

Let's analyze Telecom Cos for investment purposes. These Co provide internet, mobile, TV or other services that basically relates to transfer of information by wire/wireless means.

Wiki => https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_telecommunications_companies

Major source of revenue for biggest Telecom Co is mobile services (i.e your cell phone service), followed by internet services (known as Fixed line service) and TV (media) services.

Under Phone section, you can find more details on largest US Mobile operators and MVNO. Mobile operators in US: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mobile_network_operators_in_the_United_States

Just Top 10 companies generate revenue of $1T. Probably all Telecom Co combined generate revenue of $2T or more worldwide (Just top 100 generate $1.5T, so remaining small players worldwide probably generate $0.5T, just a guess). Telecom Co routinely buy other Co (even unrelated to their main line of business) and routinely sell some of their assets (and buying them back again at higher prices) which make going thru there income statements and balance sheet very cumbersome. They also carry a lot of debt, and routinely issue new debt to buy other companies. They also pay a hefty dividend to shareholders, which is very common with public companies carrying an enormous amount of debt.

Even though net income is low at 10% of revenue, a big chunk of expense is in depreciation and amortization. If we take that out, these Cos generate lot more cash than income. However, their capital expenditure is also very high at >10% of revenue. 

FY 2024 Metrics:

Top 5 companies by revenue are:

1. China Mobile: It's Chinese state owned telecom Co. It's the largest mobile n/w operator in the world by subscribers and revenue. It used to be listed on NYSE, but was delisted in 2021 due to it's connection to Chinese People's Liberation Army. It was subsequently listed on SSE in China.
   
   • It had ~1B subscribers as of 2022. It's revenue has grown from $3B in 1997 to $150B in 2023 (mostly in a straight line), while it's earnings have grown from $1B to $25B. It's charging $150/yr per customer, which seems reasonable. It's market cap has been around $200B for the last 15 years (2010 - 2025), which is surprising as it's revenue/profits increased a lot, but didn't help the market cap.
2. Verizon: It's US  Company, which resulted from breakup of "Bell systems" (later renamed as AT&T) in 1983 into 7 regional Co. It was originally named "Bell Atlantic", but in 2000, changed the name to Verizon Communications after merging with telephone Co GTE in $65B deal. Verizon formed Verizon wireless in 2000 in a joint venture with Vodafone in a deal valued at $70B. It integrated it's own wireless divisions under "Verizon Wireless" and was planning an IPO for it in 2003, but later canceled it, as it made enough profits and didn't need any investor money. At that time, Verizon became the largest local telephone company in USA, operating 63 million telephone lines and 25 million mobile phone customers. In 2004, Verizon was added to DJIA index by kicking out AT&T. Verizon had expanded into optic fiber internet lines, but started divesting from this in 2005 to focus on wireless and Media. In 2006, Verizon bought MCI, a long distance provider for Business clients, for $8B, which caused it's revenue to inc by 20% in 2006. In 2008, Verizon acquired Rural Cellular Corp. for $2.7 billion, and wireless carrier Alltel for $28B. In 2010-2020, Verizon acquired more companies for bilions of dollars (2011=Terremark for $1.4B, 2012=AWS for $3.9B, 2015/2017=AOL and Yahoo for $5B each, and later sold them as part of it's media group for $5B to Apollo in 2021, 2016=>Fleetmetics for $2.4B along with some other companies, 2018=>XO communications for $1.8B, 2020=>Tracfone wireless for $6.5B, ). In 2013, it also bought remaining 45% stake in Verizon wireless from Vodafone for $135B (paid for by issuing 1.27B Verizon shares to Vodafone shareholders). As of 2024, Verizon is planning to buy fiber optic Co, Frontier Communications for $20B. All in all, Verizon has spent > $200B buying Companies in last 20 yrs mostly funded by issuing stocks
   • 146M wireless subscribers and 12M internet subscribers (7M Fiber Optic and 5M Fixed Wireless Access subscribers). It had $130B in revenue and a market cap of $200B.
3. AT&T: SBC  (one of the baby bells) acquired parent company AT&T Corp in 2005, and renamed merged Co as AT&T Inc., and retained it's logo and marketing. 4 of the baby bells along with parent AT&T are part of AT&T Inc. Other 2 baby bells merged to form Verizon. Cingular wireless (which had acquired old AT&T wireless in 2004) became AT&T subsidiary after SBC bought AT&T in 2006. AT&T acquired Time Warner Cable in 2016 for $110B, but later in 2022 divested completely of it's media arm as Warner Brothers Discovery which was listed as public company.  AT&T went from a revenue of $45B and profit of $7B in 2001 to $118B in revenue and $15B in profit in 2024.Their revenue went as high as $180B when they bought Time Warner, but declined later when they kept on selling their assets. They have mostly US customers, with o< 5% of revenue from Latin America. 2 Primary segments
   1. AT&T Wireless: 118M wireless subscribers. $85B in revenue in 2024, with operating income of $26B, so highly profitable segment. Only $65B came from services, remaining $20B was from equipment (i.e phone) sale. So, on an avg $600/yr per subscriber in phone services, which is very high compared to MVNO.
   2. Wireline (Fiber internet): $32B ($19B = business and $13B = consumer) in revenue in 2024. They made just $0.8B in operating income, though they used to make lot more (i.e in 2022 they made ~$3B in operating income on revenue of $34B). AT&T is getting rid of traditional copper based wireline. Out of total 14M connections in wireline, only 4M customers were on copper lines.
4. TMobile US: 130M wireless subscribers.
5. Comcast: 

Verizon (VZ):

Let's look closely at Verizon's financials from 2000 to 2025.

SEC filings => https://www.verizon.com/about/investors/sec-filings

Stocks outstanding: In 2000, there were 2.7B stocks, went to 2.86B in 2014. From 2004-2005, VZ spent $0.5B in buybacks, then in 2006-2008, it spent $6B. But stock count didn't go down at all due to dilution. Then in 2014, it increased share count by 1.3B shares (due to purchase of Verizon wireless) to 4.16B. To reduce stock count, in 2015, VZ again spent $5B, which brought stock count to 4.08B (it bought 80M shares for $5B). In 2021, VZ bought Tracfone by paying $3B in cash and $3B via 60M of VZ stock. Stock count rose by 120M during 2021 and 2022 getting to 4.2B. From 2023 onwards, stock count has been flat at 4.21B on Jan 31, 2025, which is a good sign.

2 units in business:

1. Consumer reporting unit (CU)
2. Business reporting unit (BU)

Debt:

Assets:

• Wireless License: Carrying value = $156B. It's substantially iess than the fair value estimated based on cash flow. Basically meaning that VZ should be able to resell these licenses for much more than $156B
• Goodwill => The balance = $23 billion, of which ~$21 billion was in our Consumer reporting unit and ~$1.7 billion was in our Business reporting unit. At end of 2023, goodwill in CU was $7.5B, but a impairment of $5.8B reduced it to $1.7B. Gooodwill in CU was way above fair value.

Stock watchList

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Last Updated: Saturday, 03 May 2025 13:08

Published: Saturday, 22 March 2025 01:36

Hits: 346

These are stocks that are at year lows. These are large companies, all dividend paying and financially strong enough to keep paying dividend.

• Target (TGT):
• Pfizer
• Accenture
• Pepsi (
• Stanley Black and Decker
• Fedex
• Baidu:
• Kohls (KSS)
• Medtronic (MDT) => dividend aristocrat
• HPE
• Kraft Heinz = KHC
• Bristol Meyers Squibb (BMY)
• Nike: 21 yrs of dividend inc. $1.6 dividend on $50 stock (5 yr low in price)

 Stocks NOT worth investing:

• VZW< ATT
• Bath and Body Works

Central AC - DIY

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Last Updated: Monday, 26 May 2025 18:25

Published: Monday, 31 March 2025 04:14

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Central AC - DIY

Installing a Central AC:

This is NOT a DIY. It's always installed by a professional. There are videos on how to do it yourself, but you would be better installing a ductless minisplit (may be multiple of them) to achieve the same result. Minisplits are DIY and lot easy to replace.

Replacement of AC: AC replacement labor is pretty expensive at $4K per installation just in labor cost. It's definitely a DIY, but only for people who have already handled minisplit Installation and repair. Here's 2 part video explaining it:

Part 1 (Replacing outside condensor unit): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR5wIbNrs7Y

Part 2 (Replacing inside Evaporator coil): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIDSNBOpBKg

Part 3 (Brazing and Pressure test): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUwIKPoBYSo

Repair and Maintenance:

A lot of common problems with AC are easy to fix, and you don't have to sell your kidneys to pay someone to repair it.

Video showing top 4-5 issues with AC issues and repairs (Taddy digest) => https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wThzFULXxN8

1. Freon Topoff: 

Most of the repair of Central AC is around Freon leaking, which is a very common issue. Some Freon leaking is OK, as you can just top off every couple of years, instead of trying to find the leak and fixing it. However, AC repair companies which come and top off Freon charge a lot of money, usually around $100/lb, while you can get freon for around $10-$20 per pound.

Here's a video detailing how to do it => https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1s4wxDBe24

Look for High side and low side pressures to be inline with what it's supposed to be.

Freon leak detection: This is harder and requires more tools. I've explained it under "Minisplit" section. Look for leak detection by first topping off freon, and checking with "Refrigerant leak sensor". On top of that, you can put soapy water at places you suspect of leak. If the AC is showing < 50 PSI (meaning most of the refrigerant has leaked), then you can vacuum out the AC, and then add nitrogen gas to it and do leak detection again. This process is more involved for AC than Minisplit.

2. Capacitor Replacement:

A lot of time, your AC will just die (not start at all) on a hot summer day. The most common culprit is the Capacitor that's on the outside unit. It's a dual capacitor (2 capacitors in 1 pkg), and is just connected via wires. The capacitor is usually inside the covering to protect electrical connections, so you have to unscrew the little covering on the side of the unit to see the capacitor. You can measure the cap b/w the 3 terminals via multimeter. The multimeter should show open (or infinite resistance) is the capacitor is good. If it shows close to 0 resistance, that means there' s a short in the capacitor, and the capacitor needs to be replaced. Sometimes the capacitor is not out right shorted, but has a lower capacitance value than what it's supposed to have. That means it''s out of spec and will fail in some time. This can't be detected by a multimeter, but you can buy the more advanced meters which measure capacitance too. This will give you the proper capacitance reading. It's better to replace them if they are out of spec, instead of waiting for them to fail. You can buy these capacitors from Home Depot, Lowes, etc for $10 a piece. The only spec that needs to match is capacitance value listed. It's written in MFD (micro farad) or uF. There are 2 cap values mentioned, ad you need to match with the new one that you are going to replace with. You do NOT need to match the part name from the printing on the capacitor. If you can't read the Cap value, then you need to call the manufacturer of your AC and they'll give you the part number and the cap values. Ignore the part number, as you can buy any brand of cap from anywhere. If a HVAC contractor comes to fix this, he'll charge you $300-500 for replacing these capacitors. It's a 2 minute job and saves you $$$.

Capacitor replacement (DIY HVAC guy) => https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQisFmMtAis

The 3 terminals of Cap are: C (common), FAN (fan) and HERM(Hermetic compressor). So, the 2 cap formed are b/w C-FAN, and b/w C-HERM. If you measure cap values b/w these you will see the values. HERM cap (~50uF) is listed 1st on the pkg, and it's always lot higher than the FAN cap (~5uF) which is listed next (i.e HERM_CAP/FAN_CAP). These are the 2 motors in the outside unit => one that cools the condensor (the visible big fan that you see, which is not a very powerful motor) and the other is the compressor motor that does the job of compressing to increase the pressure of refrigerant. This motor has to be lot more powerful to be able to do the pressurizing job efficiently, hence the higher cap.

The colored wires that connect to Caps in my AC are: Red is common, Purple is Fan and Yellow is Herm. It may be same or different colors. Make a note of these colors and what they connect to, so that you connect them exactly as it was before.

Link with details => https://hvactrainingshop.com/dual-run-capacitor/

My 3.5 TON AC from Lennox (for downstairs) read 44.74uF(HERM), 10.06uF(FAN), while specs were 45uF(HERM), 10uF(FAN). So, both the caps were good as they were within 1% of Spec. Even then, I bough one to keep for spare from here (I just looked for MFD 45uF + 10uF MFD, it came with 5 yr warranty, and is less than 1/2 the price of one from Lennox) => https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0932QKL5L

Similarly for 2 Ton AC from Lennox (for upstairs) read 34.5uF(HERM), 4.44uF(FAN), while specs were 35uF(HERM), 5uF(FAN). So, Fan Cap was bad as it was outside 10% spec. Even though the AC is running fine, it's not advisa;e to run AC with Caps which are more than 10% outside of spec. So,, I bought one from same company => https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0932RGKCX

Each of them cost $15 for a total of $30. HVAC Tune up guy gave me a quote of $700 for replacing both. Now that's a ripoff :(

Home Owner Association

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Last Updated: Saturday, 01 March 2025 00:14

Published: Saturday, 01 March 2025 00:14

Hits: 472

Home Owner Association (HOA):

Wiki => https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeowner_association

HOAs are Associations that a bunch of homes in a neighborhood form. In homes built before 1980's, there didn't use to be associations. The only associations that existed were for "Apartment" like housing complex, where a bunch of homes shared common wall, or common roof, or common ground. Associations were necessary in such cases, since no one owned the land, instead they owned just the air space. Any maintenance work needed for the building had to be shared. So, associations were needed, where associations collected some yearly fees from Homeowners. This money pooled in was used for pay for any ongoing expenses to maintain the "Flat system community". These "flat or apartment" systems are known as "Condo" and "Townhome" in USA. "Condo" are exactly like "flats" in India, where houses are built on top of each other, generally 2 storied. Bigger cities have Buildings which have 10's of floors. "Townhome" are little better than "Condo" in the sense that each house is built on it's own land. To keep price of houses low, houses are built next to each other, where they may share a common wall on one or both sides. However, the hmeowner still doesn't own the land. All of the land in a condo/townhome is owned by the Association (HOA).

Fast forward to 2000's and now even stand alone home with their own land have associations. Infact, no builder builds houses w/o HOA anymore. If you buy any of these houses, you have to become member of HOA and  bound by the HOA rules. HOA also have yearly fees to pay for common area maintainence, etc. These HOA dues are usually $1K/year, but in some neighborhoods go as high as $5K/year. Condos/Townhomes have even higher HOA dues.

HOA Pitfalls:

HOA is a legal "GundaRaaj" in USA. There is a Board for any HOA which comprises of couple of elected homeowners. They go hire a "Management Company" which provides services for a yearly fees. These "Management Companies" take over all the power, and Board members become mere "puppets" of the Management Company. Dues start going up, services start going own. Anh how does it become a "GundaRaaj". Because there is

http://www.poliakoffoncondohoaliving.com/2011/04/enforcing-covenants-rules-and-regulations-in-condos-and-hoas-the-concepts-of-waiver-and-selective-enforcement/

If r4ule hasn't been enforced in years, it cannot be enforced.

Ask for mediation or arbitration prior to lawsuit.

http://www.dallasbar.org/sites/default/files/October%202014%20-%20HOA%20Foreclosure.pdf

Texas property code :

https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.209.htm#209.007

Sec. 209.0062.  ALTERNATIVE PAYMENT SCHEDULE FOR CERTAIN ASSESSMENTS.  (a)  A property owners' association composed of more than 14 lots shall adopt reasonable guidelines to establish an alternative payment schedule by which an owner may make partial payments to the property owners' association for delinquent regular or special assessments or any other amount owed to the association without accruing additional monetary penalties.  For purposes of this section, monetary penalties do not include reasonable costs associated with administering the payment plan or interest.

(12)  impose interest and late charges for late payments of assessments, returned check charges, and, if notice and an opportunity to be heard are given in accordance with Subsection (d), reasonable fines for violations of the declaration, bylaws, and rules of the association;