Insider Monkey

12 Best Telecom Stocks To Buy Right Now

Ramish Cheema
9 min read

In This Article:

In this piece, we will take a look at the 12 best telecommunications stocks to buy right now. If you want to skip our overview of the telecommunications industry, then take a look at 5 Best Telecom Stocks To Buy Right Now.

The telecommunications industry is one of the most important in the world right now, and before the advent of the internet era, it was responsible for ushering in the wave of globalization. Before the telephone was invented, long distance communication could only be carried out through the telegraph, and this limited communications as the telegraph could only send messages in text form that were coded and then decoded.

With the spread of the internet, the telecommunications industry has also seen significant changes, in an interesting development as the early days of internet connectivity saw users rely on their telephone to go online in the 1990s and the early 2000s. Since then, traditional telecommunications mediums, such as the telephone and cellular connectivity have faced stiff competition as high speed internet courtesy of 4G, LTE, and now 5G has enabled users to rely on voice over internet protocol (VOIP) to make phone calls and send messages. VOIP services such as Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)'s WhatsApp have allowed users to avoid paying for phone packages, and instead rely on internet coverage to communicate with each other.

Additionally, cell phone coverage provides users in most regions of the world with the ability to contact others thousands of miles away; a convenience that was unavailable to the mass market before the turn of the millennium. Satellite connectivity is a key drive of long distance telecommunications, and newer satellites even seek to help users who might be unable to gain a connection through a cell phone tower.

While traditionally telecommunications satellites were located at much higher altitudes to expand their coverage map at the expense of coverage loss at higher altitudes, an opening of low Earth orbit (LEO) courtesy of existing and planned rocket systems is also ushering in changes to connectivity. Most telecommunications satellites before the recent developments circled the Earth around the equator, which limited their ability to end signals down to individual devices and towers at higher latitudes such as regions in the Arctic. Additionally, the higher altitude (geostationary satellites orbit at altitudes in excess of 30,000 kilometers) also left traditional satellite phones prone to latency, even when used inside airplanes.

These limitations are also present in internet networks that rely on the heftier geostationary satellites, with internet coverage being one area where LEO satellites have shown their disruptive potential to the telecommunications sector. Internet coverage has typically been the domain of carriers, particularly during the early days of dial up coverage. Then, as fiber networks and associated infrastructure required heftier investments and even today, firms such as Lumen Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:LUMN) (previously CenturyLink) offer both fixed line voice and internet services to users.

Terms and Privacy Policy
Your Privacy Choices
Utah Privacy Notice

Recommended Stories