BT Group, which virtually owns the UK telecommunications market, isn't waiting for Google (GOOG) to launch a full attack. The company probably expects to be under assault from the search engine (and advertising and e-mail) giant, so it's taking early action. Google Voice is still being tested, but words like "free" and "powerful" and "internet-based" are bound to inspire fear in even the most established of companies.

To protect itself from the eventual attack from Mountain View, BT picked up Ribbit Mobile, and testing is in progress. Ribbit's technology has some overlap with Google Voice and even beats it with a few capabilities, according to Bloomberg. Ribbit just launched its beta product this month. It allows either the user's current phone number or a new one from Ribbit -- which is no different from Google's alternative. The product suite is generally the same, with phone- and web-based voicemail retrieval and automatic transcriptions that can be sent by text message or e-mail. For an extra fee, BT's Ribbit does provide human transcription, though it is free during testing. And, calls can be taken directly from a computer, using a microphone and speakers.

AT&T, Inc. (NYSE: T) has seen incredible gain on the back of the Apple iPhone in the last two years. So much, in fact, that its national wireless network is most likely strained -- causing many an iPhone customer to constantly have problems with their service.

Cable giant Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) posted Q3 numbers earlier today. It seems like the company is doing well with earnings growth and cash flow, even if revenues moved up a meager 3%.

Adjusted earnings per share grew over 20% to 28 cents per share. According to our earnings preview, the market was looking for 25 cents per share. Operating cash flow increased a little under 3%, but free cash flow went up almost 20%, aided by a smaller amount of capital expenditures compared to the previous year's similar quarter. I'm sure shareholders are more than satisfied with the growth rate of the green stuff over the past three months. Comcast saw excellent expansion of free cash over the last nine months, too.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) issued Q3 data on Monday. According to the press release, the telecommunications entity made, on an adjusted basis, 60 cents per share. Disappointing, since that's six pennies less than last year's comparable number. However, it was a penny ahead of analyst expectations, according to Reuters.

Of course, when discussing Verizon, what tends to receive focus is cash flow. As we all know, the company is a famous dividend play. Many investors consider this angle to be not only valuable, but an added safety element as well.

Dallas-based AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), the exclusive U.S. carrier for the iPhone, is scheduled to discuss its third quarter 2009 financial results in a conference call Thursday at 10:00 AM ET. You can catch the live webcast of the call on the company's website.

During the three months that ended in September, AT&T revamped many of its retail locations, expanded its global wi-fi presence, and declared a quarterly dividend. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect this leading provider of wireline voice communications services in the U.S. to report that earnings grew 6.0% from a year ago to $0.50 per share. But revenue for the quarter is expected to be 1.5% lower to $30.9 billion.

AT&T (NYSE: T) fell from a high of almost $43 to less than $22 in a little over a year. T formed a long-term bottom, finally breaking out at $27 after executing a gold cross (confirmation of a long-term bull market).

But profit-taking in the past two weeks has caused a retrenchment back to support at $26.50.

The stock could pull back more, but its high quality and visibility make this the bluest of blue chip stocks, with a dividend yield of more than 6% and a strong buy recommendation by S&P (five stars).

When selecting which stocks to buy, ratings from agencies like Standard & Poor's can be useful in creating a balanced portfolio.

But did you know technical analysis is the most accurate way to predict where a stock -- or the market for that matter -- is going?

Technical analysis is more of an art than a science, but when used correctly it can boost your profits to new heights. I took a look at stocks that S&P has a four- or five-star rating on and analyzed their charts to come up with six great technical trades for you.

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) has seen massive negative publicity come in from earlier in the summer to know in regards to its policies on the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone it currently has an exclusive on. After all, that $99 or $199 purchase was not giving customers complete control over over the freedom to do what they wanted with those precious iPhones.

When the AT&T/Google/Apple situation flared up recently, it caused the microscope on AT&T's strict controls on the iPhone to become even more intense.

The infighting between AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) just continues to get nastier as the line that constitutes a telecommunications provider continues to break down. Back when Google'e "Google Voice" application was not approved for use on the Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone this summer, the game began.

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) sent a letter to its Everything Data customers recently informing them that they could now call any mobile phone number in the U.S. -- at any time -- for free.

Sprint's new Any Mobile, Anytime calling plan gives those customers with at least a $70/month bill this new capability.

"The Dogs of the Dow strategy has a long-term history of outperforming the Dow Jones average," notes technical expert Gerald Appel.

In his Systems & Forecasts, he explains, "The theory is that the highest yielding stocks are undervalued and should have the greatest change of appreciating." Here, he reviews the five highest yielders.

"In calculating a formal track record for the strategy, dividend yields are ranked on the last trading day of each year. However, there is no reason why you are limited to ranking stocks only at the end of the year.

"The current market climate appears favorable for using this strategy to garner investment income, since market risk appears below normal and investment income is getting hard to come by.

"I remain optimistic that now is a good time to be purchasing high-yielding assets," says growth and income expert Bryan Perry.

Indeed in his industry-leading The Cash Machine, the advisor adds two growth and income picks to his buy list: AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ). Here's his assessment.

"Even if you are forecasting a recovery in mid to late 2010, you should be aggressively buying strategic high-income assets over the next three to six months.

Facebook is making the biggest ad splash since Google, according to an article in the Financial Times.

More than four-fifths of the largest advertisers in the United States have turned to the social networking platform to promote their wares -- after several years of fearing these types of communities. The lure of Facebook must have been too much to resist, with 340 million monthly unique visitors. Now, it's not unusual to see the likes of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Nike (NYSE: NKE), and AT&T (NYSE: ATT) advertising in this world.

When AT&T, Inc. (NYSE: T) announced that it would feature $3 per day unlimited calling with its prepaid wireless service called GoPhone, it was hard to see the point. After all, competitors in the wireless prepaid space, such as Sprint Nextel Corp.'s (NYSE: S) Boot Mobile brand, already offer unlimited calling for $50 per month. That's all day, every day calling with no long distance or wireless roaming charges.

When I wrote last week that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) were strong-arming Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) over its new Google Voice application for Apple's iPhone, it was hard to see how Apple could not approve a program by one of its long-time partners and then starting yanking off related programs from its App Store that had been there a while and were being downloaded and used perfectly by customers of its iPhone product. Someone was being evil here.

Now that FCC is getting involved -- it wants to know why Apple is blocking the use of the Google Voice -- will Apple have to uncover just why it's exerting so much muscular control about what types of programs it can offer on its App Store for the millions of iPhone owners to have access to? You see, when iPhone owners bought their beloved phone, they really did not own it at all. It will only work on one wireless carrier (AT&T), and only Apple has control over what applications go on its App Store for iPhone customers to download and use.