Earlier quoted context omitted.
food retail margins are 2% every time they turn over their inventory , which if they manage it properly can be much less than a month. so that 2% is annualized via a large multiplier the margins for telecoms are considered on an annual basis.
Sorry, I don't understand. Are you saying that gross revenues for food retail are higher, and thus 2% of is bigger than 12% of ?
if you lay fiber and connect it to the internet and hire cable guys to visit people's houses and customer service people to answer the phone, and your total revenue for a year minus your costs for a year comes out to a profit margin of 50%, you have 50% margins.