The Real Telecom Dividends

What You Need to Know About This Telecom's High Yield By Fool. By comparison, here are some other telecoms that also pay high dividends. In this environment of low interest rates, they can be hard to resist. But if you're tempted, it's good to know how much of those companies' profits go toward maintaining those yields.

The cash flow statement, on the other hand, deals only in what cash is actually on hand, not on paper profits. Therefore, dividing dividends by free cash flow (net cash from operations, less capital expenditures) will give a more realistic look at payout ratios than dividing dividends by net income.

Here is a table of telecoms with yield, payout and the free cashflow payout:

Company	Dividend Yield (Projected)	Payout Ratio or Percentage of Earnings Used to Pay Dividends	Percentage of Free Cash Flow Used to Pay Dividends
		(TTM)	(TTM)
Frontier Communications	10.70%	461%	82%
Windstream (NYSE:WIN  )	7.90%	180%	78%
Consolidated Communications(Nasdaq: CNSL  )	8.50%	147%	58%
CenturyLink (NYSE:CTL  )	8.40%	143%	58%
Ntelos (Nasdaq:NTLS  )	6.20%	109%	74%
Verizon	5.60%	87%	47%
AT&T (NYSE: T  )	6.10%	50%	71%

Related Stock Ticker:
FTR, CNSL, CTL, NTLS, VZ, T

Source: Fool.com