The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that the telcos may have looked like solid picks near the start of the year: If nothing else, lower interest rates should have made those dividends stand out in a good way. The Globe's David Berman writes that the sector did not play along. BCE, Rogers and Telus declined by an average of 28 per cent in 2024. They were the worst, second-worst and sixth-worst performing stocks, respectively, in the S&P/TSX 60 Index. Big incumbents battled each other for wireless customers in an increasingly fraught competitive environment. Canada's lower immigration targets are seen as an additional headwind for the telecom sector. However, as share prices faltered, dividend yields soared. Telus's yield rose above 8 per cent in December and BCE's neared 12 per cent, reflecting a grim outlook for profit growth. In BCE's case, there are rising concerns among some analysts that the company may have to slash its quarterly payout to get its distributions in line with profits. As a BCE and Telus shareholder, Mr. Berman's stubborn (and self-interested) prediction: The sector-wide nature of this downturn lowers the risk of any one telecom stock blowing up. They cannot all lose, can they?