That's an old, old story. I suppose one could google it and find the answer. It was very simple. The CEO simply said he was going to raise the dividend 10x (from whatever you said, sounds right, about 7 cents to 70 cents).

He did it simply to be able to compete with the other landline telecommunication companies: WIN, CTL, FTR, and I forget the others.

I was surprised a CEO would do something like that, but he did. But that's all there was to it. Some months ago I compared WIN, CTL, FTR, and one other one, and came down to WIN and CTL to park my money for dividends. I sold, moved cash to high-dividend paying oil royalties, and will now move those dividends/distributions back to CTL or WIN.

One, WIN, has announced dates (holders on 31 Dec 09 will get dividend to be paid on/about 20 Jan 10) and the other, CTL, has not announced payment date as far as I know, but it has gone ex-div Nov 23 and Nov 28 the past two years, a bit earlier than the full quarter which would push it into early December.

I'm sure someone will correct me what I've said but that's my understanding. But there was no change in company, finances, etc., when the company increased its divided by 10x. But it gives you an idea of the cash flow of these companies with little expenses compared to building out wireless.