Out Fox The $treet

Vodafone (VOD) remains a better investing option compared to Verizon (VZ) or, for that matter, AT&T (T) . While Vodafone remains a pure play on international wireless growth, the other two companies are bogged down with wireline operations. Vodafone is a U.K.-based telecommunication firm, with operations in over 30 countries, and serves more than 400 million customers worldwide. It is a global telecom giant with a significant presence in countries like Germany, Italy and Spain, as well as India, Africa and the Middle East. More importantly, the crown jewel of Verizon, Verizon Wireless, is 45% owned by Vodafone, giving the company a huge investment in the U.S. Another important distinction is that the U.S. firms continue to throw on huge amounts of debt in order to support their significant dividend payout ratios. Due to stronger stock gains, their dividend yields are now lower than Vodafone's, making the Vodafone stock more attractive. Read the full article at Seeking Alph...

After a wild couple of weeks in the domestic wireless sector following the  announcement  that AT&T ( T ) would purchase T-Mobile from Deustche TeleKom ( DTEGY.PK ) in a $39B deal, the speculation in the media has centered mostly around other potential wireless mergers in the U.S. Odd, considering that the U.S. market is very mature and past major telecom mergers a la Sprint ( S ) and Nextel in the wireless sector and MCI ( MCIP ) and WorldCom in the wireline/data sector have largely been flops. Between merging networks and combining billing systems, it's extremely time-consuming and underproductive to undertake (trust me, I know from first-hand experience of working the projects of trying to merge the billing systems of MCI and WorldCom)..... Read the full story at Seeking Alpha . Disclosure: Long MICC and NIHD for client and personal accounts. Please review the disclaimer page.