It is increasingly evident one of the last things people are giving up during economic duress in this day and age are their smartphones (and data plans). Our society is now so data-dependent that next to food, shelter and clothing, our internet access is one of the essentials.
Along with Verizon (VZ) and T-Mobile (TMUS), AT&T is one of the big three wireless data providers in the U.S. These companies have a lock on the U.S. consumer. Building out a competing network would be very cost-prohibitive (and time-prohibitive) for a new player.
With stock prices of many U.S. companies not yet recovered from their March lows, the difference between AT&T's dividend yield and the 10-year Treasury yield is now close to an all-time high of 5.38% as of the writing of this article.
Now that markets are normalizing. I thus think it is a great time to capture this yield by going long AT&T.
AT&T has increased its dividend at a rate of 3.4% per year for the last 20 years. This has nicely exceeded the rate of inflation, which has been about 2.15% per year over this period.
With AT&T, not only do you have dividend growth, but also inflation protection and recession resistance built-in. 
AT&T continues to generate copious amounts of cash flow, which easily covers the dividend, as the following chart attests.
Disclosure: The author is long AT&T.
Read more here:
- State of Recovery
- A Look at GrafTech: Evaluating Why Mohnish Pabrai Sold
- Revisiting the Graham Number
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