It seems that way for sure..

appears the reversal for a major comeback could be on it's way...regular BB's also seem to think so...lowest price was hit yesterday at 70p...Buyeres were flocking back into today as one of the best buys at current price.

DYOR as always, but i think it's worth the punt this one..!

jules99

Signs Of A Telecom Revival

Market Comment
[ October 31, 2005 ]

By David Kuo



It seems that telecoms are back in fashion after being in the doghouse for a good half decade or more. In fact, two of our four Champion Shares picks so far are from the telecom sector.

The change in sentiment towards telecoms appears to have started back in August when Cable & Wireless (LSE: CW.) won a battle with Thus (LSE: THUS) to buy Energis for 594m. Since then, Telewest has agreed to merge with NTL (NASDAQ: NTLI - news) , and Sweden's Ericsson has consented to buy the rump of Marconi (LSE: MONI.L - news) (LSE: MONI) for 1.2b. Elsewhere, BSkyB (LSE: BSY.L - news - msgs) (LSE: BSY) said it will buy Easynet (LSE: ESY) for 211m to spearhead its march into the broadband market.

Not to be outdone, Spain's Telefonica (Madrid: TEF.MC - news) was talking telephone numbers today when it agreed to buy O2 (LSE: OOM) for 17b. The deal, which is the largest acquisition in the European telephone industry for five years, will give Telefonica a strong foothold in the German, Irish and UK mobile phone market. That's provided it can fend off possible counter-bids from T-Mobile and Holland's KPN (Amsterdam: KPN.AS - news) . It also ends years of speculation as to whether O2 can survive as a standalone operator.

Unfortunately, today's mega deal is unlikely to benefit too many private investors. Earlier this year, O2 got rid of many of its small investors because it felt that maintaining a register of a million shareholders who owned less than 600 shares each was just too expensive. However, private investors may still benefit from consolidation elsewhere in a highly fragmented telecom industry.

Top of the takeover list is likely to be loss-making Colt Telecom (LSE: CTM). The company, which was founded in London in 1992, has enjoyed seven years of continuous revenue growth. However, Colt is not expected to turn in a profit any time soon; losses have been forecast for this year and next. But Colt shares, which stand at 56p, value the company at 0.7 times sales, which could make it a cheap play on the UK telecom sector.