Don't Hang Up on Vodafone

THE WORLD'S LARGEST PHONE companies are building operations that span the developed and developing world.

But more mundane concerns have preoccupied telecom investors. Case in point, the 15% decline this year in the American depositary receipts of U.K.-based Vodafone, one of the world's most global phone companies, with 221 million subscribers.

Investors worry that Vodafone's growth in Western Europe will be hobbled by price wars and regulation. And business in new markets like India and Turkey is still young and unpredictable.

But such concerns could well prove too negative, which would make Vodafone's ADRs, trading at about 11.6 times projected ...