Industry executives and financial stakeholders are divided as to whether a true business recovery is under way in the long-suffering global telecommunications industry, although it has shown modest signs of recovery over the past two years, a global study by Ernst & Young shows.
The study, Breaking away: leading the telecommunications turnaround, indicates there is a basis for at least some industry optimism as business indicators, such as return on invested capital, free cash flow margins, the ratios of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), capital expenditures to revenue and debt to EBITDA coverage ratios are showing signs of improvement.