Ten of the foreign fixed-line telecom stocks offer yields of more than 5% as of December 31, 2009 as shown in the table below.

Fixed-line telecom companies in foreign countries tend to be monopolies or hold a dominating position in the market even if other carriers operate. Many of them are also the largest telecom service providers in the country and have expanded into other related areas such as mobile, internet services. Though they are highly regulated, these firms have a solid customer base and continue to push other services to existing customers.

The Fed model compares the forward earnings yield of the stock market with 10-year government bond yields. The model assumes that investors view stocks and bonds as competing assets and will purchase whichever asset has a higher yield, according to an article in Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance May 2009 issue.

Income investors will always be in a dilemma over whether to purchase fixed income securities such as bonds, or to buy stocks with competitive yields. Companies that pay generous dividends tend to perform well in an era of mild inflation.

Foreign stocks usually pay higher dividends. Five of the foreign ADRs that pay more than 6% dividends as of the market close on November 20th are listed below:

1. Company: Tor Minerals (TORM)
Sector: Shipping
Country: Denmark
Current Dividend Yield: 13.38%

The Complete List of Greek ADRs traded in the U.S. organized exchanges are listed below:

Lack of competition for fixed line monopoly Telekom Srbija has left Serbs complaining of a poor quality service, which is partly analogue, partly digital, with many households still sharing lines, so that only one can use the phone at the same time. According to the regulator’s figures, landline penetration was around 38 percent in 2007, while GSM penetration was almost 112 percent, a discrepancy explained by long waiting times for landlines to be installed.

Presently, only the mobile sector in Serbia is fully liberalised , earning an estimated €1.8 billion in turnover. Norway’s Telenor (TELNY.PK) bought local operator Mobi 63 in 2006 for €1.5 billion euros & currently services approximately 39% (3 million users) of the market, while Mobilkom, the mobile telephony arm of Telekom Austria (TKAGY.PK), paid €320 million to acquire the third mobile licence bringing an approximate market share of 5% . The remainder is controlled by Telekom Srbjia’s mobile arm MTS which claims more than 5.6 million subscribers, as of November 2008, Telekom is a joint venture 80% owned by the government, with the remainder held by Greco-German OTE Net (OTE) (Deutsche Telecom (DT) recently acquired a 25% in the Greek carrier for €3.2 billion).

European telecom sector growth has been flat for a few years now. Some of the fixed line and mobile telecom service provider stocks have become value plays with good dividends. Lets look at eight such telecom stocks from Europe.

1. Deutsche Telekom AG (DT), is a German integrated telecom provider. Currently the stock pays a dividend of 7.98%. The 5-year annual dividend growth rate is 16.09%and the annual revenue is $84.0B.

Here are some Greek stocks that are worth reviewing: