gatt writes:

Telecom stocks are the absolute last thing I'll ever invest in again.
I'm under NDE about my present soon-to-be-former employer, but, the
general idea of telecom management is "we're profitable so let's buy the
competition." When the engineers say "Okay, look, you can buy the
competition but you have to be able to support their network and their
customer base," they're basically persona non grata. One month, your
$1000/month business T-1 service is working perfectly or if it goes
down, somebody can fix it for you immediately and the next, there's a
45-minute hold time for support and nobody's sure which part of the
network you're on. Customers go to elsewhere, the executives collect
huge-ass severances and move on and the company reputation is basically
ruined.

Unfortunately, that phenomenon exists throughout the business world, not just
in telecommunications.