Forsyth Barr broker Suzanne Kinnaird said she would be looking for more commentary about the proposed structural split of the company and an update on how Telecom was reacting to the Government's ultra-fast broadband proposal.
"Obviously, there will be interest in XT and whether or not they have turned it around."
That would be reflected in whether the mobile phone service was becoming more stable after the outages earlier this year and whether more people were signing up, she said.
Vodafone lost 25,000 customers in the three months ended June and Ms Kinnaird was looking for "modest growth" in Telecom's customer base and improved growth in XT customers. That should translate into some improvement in mobile revenue.
Telecom gave $250,000 to community projects in recognition of the impacts the XT outages had on the lower South Island.
In Dunedin, $30,000 of that fund was used to buy hundreds of native trees and shrubs to accelerate the re-establishment of bush in areas of the Harbour Cone property bought by the Dunedin City Council in 2008.
On a recent weekend, Telecom and Gen-i staff planted about 300 trees, Gen-i manager Peter Thomas said.
Ms Kinnaird expected Telecom to make some comment tomorrow that it had fixed the XT problems.
The outlook and dividend payment would be of interest, although the company had given good guidance, she said.
Forsyth Barr was forecasting fourth-quarter earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) of $424 million, up 4.3% on the previous corresponding period. Annual ebitda was forecast at $1.76 billion but, after increased depreciation and amortisation, and allowing for abnormal items, the reported profit forecast falls to $370 million.
The fourth-quarter dividend was expected to remain at 6c per share with no imputation but the 2011 full-year dividend was expected to fall to 16c with full imputation.
