Where telecom contractors lose money
6 things cost telecom contractors money without ever showing up as a line item, and each one traces to a step you can install. Telecom contractors average 22% gross margin, 15% overhead and 7% net profit at $1M–$5M of revenue. The CFOS target at that size is 24% gross margin, 14% overhead and 10% net, and the gap of 3 points on the bottom line is where those mechanisms live. Figures for all 7 revenue bands are in the table below.
Telecom sits 3rd of 6 in electrical and technology on net profit, and it carries leaner overhead than the 48-trade average. Here is every figure, across all 7 revenue bands.
Telecom by revenue band
| Metric | $1M–$5M | $5M–$10M | $10M–$25M | $25M–$50M | $50M–$100M | $100M–$500M | $500M+ | CFOS target |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overhead | 15% | 14% | 13% | 12% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 14% |
| Gross margin | 22% | 23% | 24% | 25% | 26% | 28% | 29% | 24% |
| Net profit | 7% | 9% | 11% | 13% | 15% | 18% | 20% | 10% |
SPM The Construction CFO. SPM Trade Benchmark Reference: Telecom. 2026. Sulphur Prairie Management, LLC. https://runoncfos.com/trades/telecom. CC BY 4.0.
Figures on this page were last revised 2026-08-21. Published under CC BY 4.0, which permits reuse of any figure here, including commercially, as long as the credit above travels with it. The same figures in machine-readable form: /benchmarks.json.
Trade level gross margin and overhead compiled by SPM The Construction CFO, validated against published CFMA and JMCO benchmarks. The CFOS targets beside them are from the book CONTROL: The Construction Financial Operating System, published with the full reference at runoncfos.com.
- 2024 Construction Financial Benchmarker, Executive Summary, Construction Financial Management Association, 2024.
- 2025 Performance Benchmarks, Construction Companies, Jones Maresca and Company, 2025.
- SPM Trade Benchmark Reference, Sulphur Prairie Management, LLC, 2026.
Sourcing and method: the methodology page.
Which bands are measured. The 4 bands above $10M–$25M carry the survey curve further out and have not been reconciled against the licensed CFMA Benchmarker. How every figure was built is set out on the methodology page.
6 problems specific to telecom
You cut a check to the power company in March for work your crews don't perform, and the first foot of strand goes up in August. Twelve thousand feet went in the ground in June and the invoice didn't move until September. Pre-term trunks run eight to twelve weeks and get cut to a number you took off the ceiling grid. You pulled cable in month three and saw the retainage on it in month twenty-four.
Each one below points at the item, the unit, the clock, or the party that makes it a telecom problem, and it says which step fixes it.
| Mechanism | Why it's specific to this trade | Step |
|---|---|---|
| You Pay the Pole Owner Months Before You Hang Strand | No other trade pays a third party in advance to move somebody else's plant before work can start. The pole owner controls the clock: 45 days to survey on a routine order, 60 to 90 on mid-size and large ones, then 30 days of make-ready in communications space or 90 days above it, and you've no crew on site to influence any of it. Your money sits inside another company's operation, buying work you can't schedule, expedite, or invoice against. | Job cost structure |
| The Inspector's Signature Starts Your Pay Clock | Most trades bill percentage complete that a GC can eyeball on a walkthrough. Outside plant quantity gets accepted against a GIS deliverable: point files, stationing, sheet numbers, and splice detail, reviewed by an inspector who works for the carrier and follows a standards manual. Nobody looks at a finished bore and simply agrees it happened. | Project management |
| A Pre-Term Trunk Cut Wrong Is Scrap You Own | Other trades release long-lead gear off a plan set at buyout and let the factory clock start running months before installation. Somebody from your crew has to walk the building with a measuring wheel first, so your longest lead item is also your latest release, every time. A mismeasured assembly also has no salvage path, because it fits one run in one building and nothing else. | Project management |
| Month-Three Retainage Comes Back in Month Twenty-Four | A trade that mobilizes once has retention aging from one date and can chase it as one number. Yours ages from five separate dates, and the oldest dollar is the one that waits the longest and gets forgotten first. Every return trip is also a crew day and a truck day that a single lump sum bid usually assumed you'd spend once. | Monthly cadence |
| Links Fail in November, Cable Was Crushed in April | Most trades install work that stays visible until somebody accepts it. Your product disappears above a finished ceiling within weeks and doesn't get proven for a year, which makes telecom the only trade on the job that finds damage after every possible defendant has left the site. The months between install and proof are where the money goes. | Standards and accountability |
| Standby Days Cost What Bore Days Cost | Trades that bid by the square foot buy labor by the hour and can send people home. You buy a rig, a vac truck, and a four-man crew as one indivisible daily unit that produces zero feet on a standby day at full cost. That makes your equipment cost basis the number that decides whether the job worked, and the unit price only tells you what you were allowed to charge. | Equipment cost basis |
Telecom against the other 47 trades
| Metric | Telecom | Electrical and technology average | All 48 average | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overhead | 15% | 15.5% | 15.1% | 17th of 48 |
| Gross margin | 22% | 22.8% | 22.1% | 20th of 48 |
| Net profit | 7% | 7.3% | 7% | 21st of 48 |
Telecom sheds 6 points of overhead between $1M–$5M and $500M+, against 6 for electrical and technology as a group. Inside that group, Electrical keeps the most at 9%, and Fiber, Solar and Telecom all run 15% overhead, the leanest. The leanest one is this trade.
Other electrical and technology trades
What owners ask
What overhead should a telecom contractor run?
Telecom shares its overhead figure with 14 other trades at this revenue, which is what the published data resolves to. It runs 15% at $1M–$5M and 9% at $500M+, as a percentage of revenue. That sits 0.5 points below the electrical and technology average of 15.5%. The CFOS target at $1M–$5M is 14%. The CFOS target is one point leaner than your trade's average at your revenue.
What gross margin should a telecom contractor run?
Telecom shares its gross margin figure with 12 other trades at this revenue, which is what the published data resolves to. It runs 22% at $1M–$5M and 29% at $500M+, as a percentage of revenue. That sits 0.8 points below the electrical and technology average of 22.8%. The CFOS target at $1M–$5M is 24%. The CFOS target is published at $1M to $5M. It's set at whatever gross margin produces the net profit target once overhead is paid, and never below your trade's own average.
What net profit should a telecom contractor run?
Telecom shares its net profit figure with 16 other trades at this revenue, which is what the published data resolves to. It runs 7% at $1M–$5M and 20% at $500M+, before taxes, as a percentage of revenue. That sits 0.3 points below the electrical and technology average of 7.3%. The CFOS target at $1M–$5M is 10%. The CFOS target is published at $1M to $5M.
What profit margin should a small telecom business run?
Owners usually mean net profit when they say profit margin, and for telecom at $1M–$5M that's 7%. Gross margin is a different number, 22%, and it's what's left after job costs but before overhead. Overhead is the 15% sitting between the two. A small telecom business holding 7% net is at the published figure for its size, and the CFOS target at that revenue is 10%.
Does telecom get more profitable as it grows?
Overhead is the number that moves. Telecom sheds 6 points between $1M–$5M and $500M+, which is in line with the 6 points electrical and technology sheds as a group. Net profit starts 0 points under the 48-trade average, so the room is in the overhead line before it's anywhere else.
Where does telecom sit against the other trades?
Telecom ties 2 trades in electrical and technology on net profit, all at 7%. Electrical keeps the most at 9%. Its overhead is the leanest too, level with Fiber and Solar. Gross margin ranks 20th of 48 and overhead ranks 17th.
Everything on this page is something you can install yourself, andCONTROL is the order to do it in. If you would rather buy the finished result, SPM The Construction CFO does this work for telecom contractors as a service. It is a separate firm, Sulphur Prairie Management, LLC, run by the same author.
Wrote CONTROL, the 8 step system these figures sit inside. More about the author.