Running an operating profit does not mean you&#x27;re recouping your original investment. Look at pages 23-24. It looks like wireline is pulling in ~2 billion a year in profit. But they&#x27;ve got almost $80 billion in assets.[1] That suggests that their ROIC is somewhere in the ballpark of 1-3% (in fact we know it&#x27;s 1.6%). The minuscule profit is probably not even enough to cover interest on their debt much less make a significant dent in the tens of billions they spent building the network.<p>[1] This is not a proper ROIC calculation, but close enough.